Signalfire

10/28/2010
OAKLAND — The city went to court Thursday seeking thousands of dollars in damages from four people charged with vandalism and other crimes in the violent aftermath of the conviction of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle.

Police arrested 78 people, and the Alameda County District Attorney’s office later charged at least 17 with felonies and misdemeanors on suspicion of a wide range of crimes. At least two dozen businesses reported $700,000 worth of damage, police said.

The city filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court against Terry Williams, 33, of Oakland, who was charged with second-degree burglary and remains in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on a no-bail parole violation. Also named in the suit are Raquel Sharp, 29, of Oakland, who was charged with misdemeanors, including rioting, failure to disperse and two counts of vandalism; Paul Rousseau, 25, of Oakland, who was charged with attempted robbery and two counts of vandalism; and Gerald Dugas, 20, of Castro Valley, charged with burglary and receiving stolen property. Dugas has pleaded not guilty to his charges but pleas for the others were not available.

The lawsuit seeks a total of $100,000 from Dugas and Williams, and unspecified damages from Rousseau and Sharp.

None of the four or their attorneys were immediately available for comment Thursday. Except for Williams, all will be back in court for further court hearings in their cases in November and December.

Attorney John Russo said those arrested robbed businesses, incited chaos and set fires.

“Sadly, it appears they were here for no other reason than to get an emotional rush from destruction of property, theft and lawlessness. Oakland will not tolerate this disrespect,” Russo said.

Russo’s spokesman Alex Katz said the city has enough evidence, including videotape of two of the accused, to sue them. He also called the civil lawsuit a “unique” move for the city.

A Los Angeles jury found Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter July 8 in the killing of Oscar Grant III, 22, of Hayward on Jan. 1, 2009. Mehserle shot an unarmed Grant as he lay facedown on the Fruitvale BART platform after a fight on the train.

Many people who thought the former BART officer should have been convicted of murder gathered in downtown Oakland to voice their displeasure. Within hours, a mostly peaceful demonstration turned violent as groups of protesters ran through downtown Oakland, smashing storefront windows, stealing merchandise, setting trash bins on fire and clashing with police.

Rousseau and Sharp, who were arrested that night after spray painting graffiti on public property in Frank Ogawa Plaza, were both captured on video by Oakland police officers, according to the suit. Rousseau also tried to punch an undercover officer and attempted to steal the officer’s camera, according to the suit.

“Rousseau swung his fist at the officer twice and missed,” the suit says.

The other two defendants — Dugas and Williams — were arrested with stolen jewelry, police said. Amid the protest, a crowd broke through the security gate at JC Jewelry on Broadway, kicked in a window, punched one of the owners in the face and made off with more than $50,000 in property, police said.

When police searched Williams, they found five gold teeth pieces that appeared new and unused, according to the suit. Williams said “he felt stupid for stealing gold teeth when he already had some in his mouth,” according to the suit. The suit says Dugas stole jewelry from JC Jewelry.

“Oakland welcomes thousands of visitors and residents to our city. Never do we invite violence or the trashing of the businesses that provide jobs, goods and services to our residents and visitors,” said Joseph Haraburda, president the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.

The much talked-about Industrial Police, a specialised unit of law enforcers, will formally begin its function from Sunday to maintain order in the country’s four major industrial zones, reports UNB.

The Industrial police have been formed to make sure that outsiders can not provoke violence or create chaos in four industrial zones–Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj and Chittagong.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will formally inaugurate the force at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre Sunday.

With the establishment of the Industrial police, it will be easier to tackle workers’ unrest as the force will gather prior information about possible unrest from factories particularly garment factories and identify the causes of unrest.

The newly formed Industrial police will rush to any troubled area and take rapid step to tackle the situation whereas the regular police usually take time to reach the troubled areas and control the unpleasant situation.

The Industrial police headed by a Director General will start its operation initially with 1,580 personnel deputed from the police department.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Abdus Salam has been posted to the Industrial Police Unit as its Director General.

Twenty-six officials including additional superintendents of police, assistant superintendents of police and inspectors have already been given a 10-day training at Police Staff College in Mirpur.

The training mainly focused on how to resolve disputes between owners and workers through arbitrations.

TUCSON (KGUN9- TV)- A crackdown on school zone enforcement turned into complaints from community members for the Pima County sheriff’s Office.  People in the Summit community near Old Nogales and Hughes Access Rd. filed a formal complaint Thursday, saying deputies went too far.

“It was done in a way that frightens the children, that frightens teachers, that frightens parents, and it was done in a way that drives a wedge between law enforcement and the community,” said Jamie Farrant, policy director for the Border Action Network.

He says parents became frightened when they arrived to pick up their kids on May 10, and they saw several squad cars and deputies in front of the school.  During the hour-long operation to enforce school zone traffic laws, deputies arrested one man for an outstanding warrant, and called Border Patrol to question one woman about her legal status.

Border Action Network and several Summit residents say the Sheriff’s Office violated their loyalty oath to the community by causing unnecessary fear and unrest.  They also allege schools were unaware of the operation, and that deputies were using traffic stops to ask about legal status.

The Sheriff’s Office denies those allegations, saying it notified all Pima County schools including Summit View Elementary at the beginning of the school year.  No one was alerted to the exact date.  Over several months, deputies tackled all 57 school zones in the county, making more than one hundred arrests.  All of them while children were entering or exiting school.

“That’s when we want to do the enforcement operation,” said Sgt. Michael Grider, “That’s when we want to have the high profile to slow people down in the school zones.”

Grider was in charge of the grant which allowed the Sheriff’s Office to complete the operations.  He says they heard no complaints from any other schools.

“There was nothing unusual about that day at Summit View.  We didn’t do that operation any differently than we did any other operation throughout the duration of this grant,” he said.  When 9 On Your Side asked if he’d do it again differently, he said he’d execute the operation the exact same way.

BEIJING: Security forces in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou are leaving nothing to chance to ensure the safety of the thousands of competitors and spectators attending the Asian Games. Police have carried out counter-terrorist and hostage rescue drills, stepped up checkpoints in and around the city, increased disease monitoring and cracked down on arms possession ahead of the huge 16-day event starting November 12. China wants to avoid any repeat of events seen in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, including the fatal stabbing of a US Olympic coach’s relative by a Chinese man and deadly attacks in the west blamed on Muslim militants. The nation deployed an unprecedented security force in the capital that year – more than 150,000 police and other personnel.

So far, authorities have not revealed the size of the force in Guangzhou but stressed the importance of the task at hand. “Security is our top concern and our top responsibility for the success of the Games,” Gu Shiyang, vice secretary general of the Guangzhou Organising Committee for the Asian Games, told AFP. “We are fully aware of the threats from outside the country and also the risks within the city or within the territory. We have made great efforts to make our city safe, to make our Games safe.” Nearly 12,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions will be competing in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province which sits in the Pearl River Delta, the hub of China’s huge export-oriented “workshop of the world”. “Guangzhou has a very large economy. The huge flow of people, goods and capital has also led to the complex security situation in the province,” senior Guangdong police official Zhang Zehui told the Global Times.

Cracking down on violent crime, including cross-border gun and drug trafficking with neighbouring Hong Kong and Macau will be a chief concern, police said. Guangzhou “is close to Hong Kong and Macau and there is regular cross-border traffic, which results in an influx of firearms to Guangzhou,” Zhang said. “It is a serious problem.” Public security authorities have set up a “security firewall” around the city that consists of 132 checkpoints where police will examine people, vehicles and cargo coming in, Xinhua news agency said. Security checks will also be set up at subway, ferry, train and long-distance bus terminals throughout the city. Travellers refusing to undergo examination will be barred from the city and potentially fined, it said. Anyone wanting to buy kitchen knives or other large cutting tools will be required to visit designated shops and register with the police, the China Daily reported. Shops, meanwhile, will be fitted with surveillance cameras and other security equipment, and merchants have been ordered not to sell knives to teenagers or anyone with a “mental disability”, the paper added.

To avoid the ethnic unrest violence that erupted ahead of the Beijing Olympics in Xinjiang and Tibet, an elite counter-terrorism unit – “Lightning Commando” – has been set up for the Games. Police have also held special hostage rescue drills, including an exercise simulating the hijacking of a bus of athletes by armed gunmen in the Asian Games Village, it said. Fears of an outbreak of infectious diseases has also resulted in stepped-up monitoring by health departments, state press reports said. During the Asiad, police and security forces will enlist some of the 60,000 Games volunteers and 500,000 “urban volunteers” in Guangzhou to help monitor the public safety situation. afp

28 October

A LOCAL activist attempting to deliver a petition to Ban Ki-moon was beaten unconscious and arrested yesterday by police and military police, as the United Nations secretary general concluded his three-day visit to the Kingdom.

Suong Sophorn, 23, was dragged into a police car before being treated at Daun Penh district referral hospital following an incident in which six others were injured.

They were part of a group of roughly 100 people who gathered outside the Cambodian-Russian Friendship Hospital during Ban’s visit to the facility to protest against their impending eviction from the capital’s Boeung Kak lakeside.

“They hit me in the head with a walkie-talkie, punched me in the face several times, hit me with an electric baton and then pulled me into the car by the throat,” Suong Sophorn said yesterday.

He said he was released from custody after signing a pledge to stop leading protests.

Rights groups estimate that more than 4,000 lakeside families will be evicted to make room for a 133-hectare development owned by a ruling party senator.

Daun Penh deputy governor Sok Penhvuth denied that police had used force against the protesters.

“Suong Sophorn pushed the authorities and then hit his head against the police car door,” Sok Penhvuth said. “No one hit or arrested him – the police just helped him get treatment.”

The incident came a day after Prime Minister Hun Sen asked Ban to remove Christophe Peschoux, the longtime country director of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and shut the OHCHR offices in Cambodia.

“What further indication is required that a UN human rights office is needed in Cambodia if the police are willing to beat a young protester unconscious during a visit by the highest-ranking UN official?” said John Coughlan, a legal consultant at the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights.

SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s military went on its highest alert of security preparedness this week ahead of the G-20 summit in Seoul to counter any possible disruptions by North Korea or international terrorists, military officials said Friday.
The South Korean military is also working closely with U.S. forces stationed in the South and Japan to monitor movements by the North’s armed forces to ensure safety for the summit set for Nov. 11-12, officials said.

“The alert level has been raised to its highest from Wednesday,” said an official for the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). “The monitoring of North Korea will remain at the highest level until Nov. 13.”

South Korea, this year’s rotating chair of the G-20, hopes to raise its global profile through the November summit. Security is a top concern for the country technically in a state of conflict with North Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an uneasy armistice, not a peace treaty.

Since September, the JCS has set up a command center that serves as a central part of security operations with some 10,000 troops from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps taking part.

The command center also coordinates with other security agencies, including the Presidential Security Service, the National Police Agency and the National Intelligence Service, JCS officials said.

Police are mainly in charge of security on streets and at the summit venue in Seoul, while the military provides policing for the skies and seas.

“Using enhanced reconnaissance assets with the U.S., the military is keeping a close eye on activities by North Korean armed forces,” the JCS official said on the condition of anonymity.

The military is conducting drills to cope with possible military provocations by North Korea, including seaborne infiltrations across the tense Yellow Sea border or terror attacks by ultra-light airplanes, the JCS said.

In addition to the military, some 50,000 police officers, including 20,000 riot police, are being mobilized in phases nationwide for the summit.

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) – Detainees at Israel’s Nafha prison began a hunger strike on Friday, protesting what representatives said were inhumane practices by prison authorities.

Attorney Buthayna Duqmaq with the Mandella Association told Ma’an that during a visit to the prison facility she had spoken with several detainees angered over a series of night raids on inmates cells.

The raids, Duqmaq explained, involved intensive searches going through and in many cases destroying the property of the men in the targeted cells. Detainees said they were told that the prison guards had been instructed to look for mobile phones, and added that the raids came quickly, targeting cells far away from each other.

Letters were also confiscated during the raids, Duqmaq added.

The detainees announced a hunger strike pending the cessation of what was termed a provocation by Israeli prison guards.

Oct 28

RAMALLAH: Palestinians in the city of Umm El-Fahm inside Israel on Thursday launched a general strike to protest the exacerbated violence directed at protesters by the Israeli police.

The decision to strike was made late Wednesday by the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee (HAMC).

The HAMC said in a press statement that the strike came against the Israeli police, which attacked the Palestinians during a march of Israeli right-wing activists in the city on Wednesday.

It added that the strike also came to protest against the “increasing racist approach in the Israeli street which is unfortunately supported by the (Israeli) police and judiciary.”

Abed Anabtawi, HAMC secretary, said all businesses and schools in the city were almost shut down.

Umm El-Fahm, the second Arab city after Nazareth in Israel, was occupied by the Israeli forces on May 22, 1949. Many Palestinians still live there as Israeli citizens.

The HAMC demanded that Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set up an investigation committee to look into the violent events. It also announced that it intends file an official complaint with the Israeli Police Internal Investigations Department.

Anabtawi said the clashes erupted shortly after the Israeli right-wing activists entered the city. The march was secured by 1,300 police officers. The activists, none of them injured, stayed for 30 minutes and called for outlawing the Islamic Movement in Israel.

He added that several Palestinians were injured and arrested during protests and violence between the Israeli police forces and the residents who tried to prevent far right-wing activists from entering the city.

In another move to protest the police actions, the committee plans to circulate a message among various human rights organizations and leaders around the world.

Mohammed Zeidan, chairman of the committee, said these actions were premeditated and intentional.

“They planted undercover officers among us who threw stones in order to justify the assault,” he said. “Their decision was clear from the beginning, even though they knew there were Knesset members in the crowd.”

Meanwhile, four Arab teenagers who were arrested on Wednesday during clashes in Umm El-Fahm were due to appear before the Nazareth Magistrates’ Court on late Thursday for a hearing on their remand.

For its part, the Hadera Magistrates’ Court will be handed an indictment against two residents of the city who were also arrested during the riots, charging them with assaulting police officers.

Woodhaven Students Walk Out In Support Of District Staff Who Have Lost Jobs

October 28
WOODHAVEN, Mich. — More than 100 Woodhaven High School students have been suspended after they organized a protest at the school.
Senior Nick Lamentola said he organized the protest Thursday after he heard the district is cutting 38 custodial and maintenance workers.

“The first three days after they got rid rid of the custodians, we didn’t have toilet paper in the bathrooms for three days,” he said. “That just shows that they’re not doing their job right.”

The students said they don’t mind being punished for what they consider a good cause.

“We’re getting suspended for three days, and honestly, I think that is the best thing,” said senior Mike Bryant. “Suspend us, whatever. We’ll just be back Monday and Tuesday or however long to get these security guards their jobs back.”

District security guard Dave Robere said he was informed Thursday that he was out of a job.

“I’ll try to find something here to stay with these guys. They (the students) mean a lot to us,” he said.

A fellow security guard, who asked only to be identified as Claudia, said it needs to be recognized that the people who hold jobs in the schools don’t just work there.

“People are losing their jobs. These are community members; these are parents,” she said. “We are homeowners, we are taxpayers, we are voters of this community and we’re losing our jobs.”

The Woodhaven-Brownstown School District had no comment.

29 October 2010

Chaos and confusion ensued at yesterday’s protest against the Browne Review, as a student was punched in the face by a policeman and thrown to the ground.

The protest was organised ahead of Vince Cable’s talk at Exams Schools. Despite Cable’s last minute cancellation, hundreds gathered to voice their anger about the cuts and removal of the cap on tuition fees.

Students chanted, “No ifs, no buts, no education cuts” and “Vince Cable, shame on you, shame on you for turning Blue”.

Though the event had been planned and advertised as a peaceful protest, violence erupted after police prevented protesters moving onto the High Street and enforced a change of route.

A bystander described how a line of police blocked Catte Street. As some protesters tried to break the line, a student was punched in the face by a policeman and thrown to the ground.

Lewis Greaves from St Hilda’s said “I saw two cops trying to beat up a guy, I asked them to stop and a policeman grabbed my neck and threw me to the floor”.

As protesters retreated and moved back to Broad Street they were confronted with a line of police barricading the road between Trinity Gates and the entrance to Turl Street.

Some students shouted “charge, charge” and some were restrained by the police. The protest eventually moved down Turl Street and onto Market Street, where they were again confronted with a police line preventing access to Cornmarket Street.

Some tried again to charge the line, but many students put their hands in the air and chanted, “We are peaceful, what are you?” Jordan Waller from Wadham said, “It’s disgusting seeing them ‘break up’ the protest so aggressively- I’m ashamed. The police are instigating all the violence, I didn’t see a single student instigate anything.”

Leo-Marcus Wan said, “It’s ridiculous that the police are trying to stop us exercising our right to free speech. We disagree with the decision of a government we did not elect, made with no consultation of students.”

Not all students were satisfied with the way the protest was conducted. John Lavrey, a St Catz fresher, defended the police’s behaviour, saying, “I think the police dealt well with the situation- in the circumstances they dealt a lot better than they have in the past.” Another student said, “We’re trying to gain respect and change people’s views. How can we show that we’re educated if we’re fighting the police?”

Aditya Balachander, an OUCA member, commented, “I’m here to support free speech, but I fundamentally disagree with this protest. It turns what should be debate and discussion into a shouting match.” The protest was organised by OxfordEducation Campaign, ahead of Vince Cable’s talk at Exams Schools, which was part of the Lessons in Government Seminars.

Cable initially claimed that his cancellation followed guidance from Thames Valley Police. However, a TVP spokesperson said that they were happy for the event to go ahead, and had merely informed Cable that a protest was being organised.

October 29
TWO dozen third-country nationals awaiting deportation in the Famagusta district caused damage to windows, security cameras and light switches as they protested against their lengthy detainment, police said yesterday.

The incident happened at 2.25 pm on Wednesday at the holding cells located at the former Famagusta district police headquarters.

The disturbance lasted for around 45 minutes and ended when immigration officers arrived on the scene and spoke to the 24 men separately.

A police spokesman could not immediately say how long the 24 have been in custody as it varied from person to person but at least one has been there for six months.

The reason for their lengthy detainment is that they do not have any personal documents and without them their countries of origin would not accept them back.

Many foreigners seeking to stay in Cyprus get rid of their documents to avoid deportation.

The spokesman said it takes time for each case to be investigated and new papers procured.

The 24 settled down after immigration service officers explained to the men the progress of their cases individually.

29.10.10

Ramallah – PNN – One Palestinian was injured and dozens were treated for tear gas inhalation after a confrontation with Israeli troops during the weekly march to protest the wall in the village of Bil’in.

Image The protestors shouted slogans against the wall and Israel’s settlement and detainment policies. When they reached the wall and tried to cross into the Palestinian land on the other side, the Israeli military shot rubber bullets, sound bombs, and tear gas canisters at them. Samir Barnat, 34, was injured when a tear gas canister exploded on his shoulder.

The march, organized by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, was joined by Sten Rinet, a Norwegian member of parliament, and Toron Hovik, a member of the Norwegian worker’s party, as well as Bil’in villagers and dozens of Israeli and international peace activists.

October 28

Mozambique has more than six million cell phone users, many of them using the cheap prepaid models that don’t require any sort of registration to purchase. The result: most of the country’s cell phones can be used anonymously, something the government is suddenly determined to stop. A new rule gives cell phone users two months to register their names and numbers with the government, all thanks to some recent rioting.

Back in September, the capitol city of Maputo was rocked by riots over food and water prices, among other grievances. Police who were called out to control the violence resorted in some cases to using live ammunition, and more than a dozen people died. The Mozambique parliament heard different versions of what happened, with some arguing that the riots were legitimate social protest by the downtrodden and other blaming mere criminal elements for the violence.

In response, the government issued a new bread subsidy, replaced the agriculture minister with the interior minister who had overseen the police response—and demanded an end to anonymous cell phone ownership. Word on the street is that the move is designed to clamp down on anti-government organizing using cell phones, something seen during the riots, but the government says it’s more about stopping criminal harassment of citizens and Nigerian-style “419″ scams.

The Mozambique press is not convinced. As one outlet put it, “This is perfectly true, but it has been going on for many years… This went on for over a decade, but did not lead the government to pass legislation obliging users to register their numbers. Clearly that has only happened now because of the riots against price rises on 1-2 September in Maputo and the neighboring city of Matola, which were coordinated by mobile phone text messages.”

Whatever the motivation, prepaid cell phone users have until November 15 to sign up. An American now living in Maputo tells us that the government has only 15 places around the country at which this registration can take place. Lines at some of these “were almost 100 people long at times,” though residents seem to believe that the government is bluffing. “The general attitude at this point is that they [the government] really aren’t going to turn off people’s phones.”

Mozambique policy follows a worldwide trend. Iran famously cracked down hard on anonymous services like text messaging and Twitter which could be used with relative impunity on cell phones after election protestors used the tools to organize weeks of protest. But numerous OECD countries have similar policies on cell phone anonymity, since disposable prepaid phones are perfect for coordinating criminal enterprises without leaving a trace. (The Times Square bombing suspect, Faisal Shahzad, used such a phone.)

In the US, the “Pre-paid Mobile Device Identification Act” was introduced in the Senate back in May, but it looks unlikely to pass before the new Congress starts next year. The bill would require retailers to register prepaid cell buyers’ full names, home addresses, and date of birth, all verified with a government ID.

29 Oct 2010
A woman was hospitalized with severe burns on October 27 after setting fire to herself outside the Georgian Ministry for Displaced Persons in Tbilisi. Nana Pipia, 46, is one of several dozen internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Abkhazia who set up camp outside the ministry building on October 25 to demand that minister Koba Subeliani either step down or re-house them in Tbilisi. She had reportedly met earlier on October 27 with a senior ministry official who responded to her protest that the housing in western Georgia the displaced persons have been offered is in a remote region with no employment prospects, no provision for growing food, and nothing in the vicinity but grass, by saying, “Then you can live on grass.”

Pipia’s desperate action serves to highlight not simply the magnitude of the problem the displaced persons constitute, but the ineffective, ad hoc, and at times discriminatory approach the Georgian authorities have adopted in attempting to reduce it to manageable proportions.

Georgia’s IDPs fall into two categories.

The larger group (of whom Pipia is one) encompasses those who fled the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia during fighting in the early 1990s. The remainder are primarily from South Ossetia and fled during the five day war in August 2008. According to a report published in August 2010 by Amnesty International, there are currently some 246,000 displaced persons in Georgia, the overwhelming majority of whom (220,000) belong to the first category.

The first wave of displaced persons were accommodated in mostly sub-standard ramshackle housing in Tbilisi or Zugdidi, the regional center in western Georgia closest to the border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia. According to Amnesty International, most such accommodation consists of privately or state-owned buildings such as former schools, hospitals, or barracks that “are not designed for long-term human habitation and do not meet the minimum standards of adequate housing.”

“The Economist” estimated in August 2009 that just under half of the early wave of IDPs still live in such conditions. Others live with family or friends or in rented accommodation.

By contrast, the second wave — those who fled during the August 2008 war — have benefitted from generous amounts of international aid. A donors conference in Brussels in the fall of 2008 raised $4.5 billion, of which 74.5 million euros ($102.7 million) was earmarked for housing for the displaced persons. Some 18,000 of them have been housed in 38 specially constructed villages. But questions have already been raised with regard both to the selection of construction companies entrusted with building the new homes and to the quality of the finished buildings.

Tina Khidasheli of the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association has alleged that two construction companies selected (without a tender) had both given generous donations to the ruling United National Movement’s election campaign earlier in 2008.

In April, it was reported that displaced persons were already leaving their new homes in the settlement of Khurvaleti, near Gori, because of “unbearable” conditions.

Georgian human rights ombudsman Giorgi Tughushi claimed in a report to the Georgian parliament on October 4 that the standard of construction of some accommodation was mediocre.

On the plus side, the new wave of displaced persons during the August 2008 war served to remind the international community of the plight of those who had fled earlier. The European Commission allocated 51 million euros ($70.3 million) in the summer of 2009 for permanent housing for both waves of displaced persons.

Amnesty International notes that it was only in February 2007 that the Georgian government adopted a state strategy to alleviate the plight of the first wave of IDPs. That strategy was revised in May 2009 and a new Action Plan adopted intended to help both categories. Its implementation has, however, been haphazard and on occasion shockingly callous, fueling the pent-up anger and frustration of the long-term displaced.

Over the past four months, “first-wave” IDPs have staged a series of protests in Tbilisi against their summary eviction from temporary accommodation and plans to re-house them in remote rural areas of western Georgia where their chances of finding employment are minimal. Some have threatened to renounce their Georgian citizenship. More recently, some displaced persons have demanded Subeliani’s resignation and even accused him of misappropriating funds allocated by international bodies for the IDPs, according to the daily “Versiya” as cited on October 20 by Caucasus Press.

The Georgian government has responded to the protests with token gestures, such as offering special medical checkups to selected IDPs and creating a new commission to study ways of creating jobs for them. At the same time, government officials have hit out at the opposition Conservative and People’s parties that openly support the IDPs’ demands.

Human rights ombudsman Tughushi met at his own request in early September with minister Subeliani to discuss the IDP problem. Tughushi reportedly criticized the authorities’ lackadaisical approach, pointing specifically to instances where IDPs were forcibly evicted from their homes without prior warning. Tughushi stressed the need to keep IDPs informed of plans to rehouse them and to abide strictly by the law.

Tughushi raised the same issues at a session in early October of the parliament committee on human rights and the temporary commission on territorial integrity, Caucasus Press reported on October 4. He noted the authorities are unlikely to meet their pledge, enshrined in the 2009 Action Plan, of rehousing all IDPS by the end of 2010, and have pushed back the target date to 2011-2012. Equally importantly, Tughushi backed the right of displaced persons to reject accommodation they consider unacceptable.

Subeliani’s ministry, however, continues to argue that it is impossible to re-house in Tbilisi displaced persons currently facing eviction from state-owned buildings in the city.

Oct 29th

(bdnews24.com) — Army has filed a case over the Rupganj clash between locals and law enforcers.

East Bengal Regiment’s warrant officer Aminur Rahman filed the case around 12:30am on Friday against 50-60 unidentified people for attempting to murder army personnel and beating them, vandalism, loot and arson at an army camp.

Rupganj Police Station officer-in-charge Forkan Sikder confirmed bdnews24.com about the case.

On the other hand, Julhash Mia, a businessman of Taan Musuri area filed another case on the same night against 11 people for vandalism, loot and arson in his house.

Sikder said 138 army personnel were mentioned as witness in the case filed by warrant officer Aminur Rahman. They are from the army camps of Taan Musuri, Naora, Purbagram and Rairachhani.

The police official said no one has been arrested yet.

He also said the situation was under control now.

Rupganj Police Station’s inspector Khandaker Akhteruzzaman said sub-inspector Ahsanullah was given the charge of the investigation.

According to the case detail, a number of ‘criminals’ from Bariachhani, Musuri and Purbagram area of Rupganj Upazila blocked Rupganj-Khilkhet and Rupganj-Demra road with tree trunks and burnt tires in the early hours of Oct 23.

They attempted to attack the temporary army training camps at Musuri, Purbagram and Bariachhani around 6am. They were delivering abusive slogans against the army too.

But the people were stopped as the army officials told them to have patience.

Around 10am, 50-60 unidentified armed people entered the Musuri camp and looted arms and ammunition. At least three army officials were injured at that time. The angry locals also torched and vandalised three army vehicles in the camp.

They were dispersed when army officials opened fire.

The ‘criminals’ came back again around 11am and attempted to kill the army officials but failed as the army officials opened fire again, according to the case.

The agitated ‘criminals’ did not allow the army personnel take the injured army officials and a civilian to the hospital.

They were brought to Dhaka Combined Military Hospital with army helicopter around 3pm.

The ‘criminals’ torched the Musuri camp around 3:30pm.

Mostafa Jamal died around 9am on Oct 24. He sustained critical bullet injuries during the clash. According to reports, 10 people were admitted in hospital with bullet injuries.

The law enforcers, however, denied firing on the people.

The local MP, Upazila and union chairmen said they did not know anything about the army camps although it is customary for the military to inform local administration about their presence.

At least 50 people were injured in the clash between police and demonstrators who blocked the Rupganj-Ichhapura road for about four hours demanding cancellation of the government decision to acquire about 5,000 bighas (165,000 decimals).

Following that incident, the police filed a case accusing six people and some 3,000-4,000 unidentified people for vandalism, loot and arson. Moreover, RAB-11 sub-inspector Yasin Mia filed another case with Rupganj Police Station the next day.

Meanwhile, Shahar Ali, father of Abdul Ali, also known as Masud, 32, and Lehaj Uddin, father of Saidul Islam, 22, of Bariachani village under Rupganj Union, filed two general diaries with Rupganj Police Station on Tuesday.

Moreover, Shamsher Mollah, father of a youth injured in the clash, filed another complaint on Wednesday.

October 29
MONTREAL – The Montreal police arson squad is investigating a suspicious fire that damaged a condominium sales office the city’s Côte des Neiges borough late Thursday night.

According to Montreal police Constable Anie Lemieux, the fire started just before midnight in the small office at the corner of Jean Talon St. and Mountain Sights Ave. Fire officials have reason to believe the blaze may have been set intentionally, said Lemieux.

The office suffered only minor damage, and no one was injured.

October 28

Chhattisgarh Government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that Maoist outfits and Naxalites were targeting buildings of schools, panchayats and hospitals and that anti-Naxal vigilante group Salwa Judum has become infructous. However, the petitioners, who have sought a direction to the state
government to refrain from allegedly supporting and encouraging Salwa Judum, said though it (Salwa Judum) is in animated suspension, it has been revived under new name which the state government has never acknowledged.

These claims were made by the contesting parties in their affidavits filed before a bench comprisng Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar which has been monitoring the steps taken by the authorities to tackle the Naxal problem and Chhatisgarh Government’s stand on disbanding of Salwa Judum.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on November 18.

The state government, which was earlier pulled up for not filing proper affidavit, said in the first nine month of the year, there were 134 encounters between Maoist and security forces in which 160 security personnel have been killed.

“From January to September this year there have been 134 encounters between Maoists and security forces in which 160 security personnel have been killed,” the affidavit filed by advocate Atul Jha, the standing counsel for the Chhattisgarh Government, said.

It said, “One of the key components of the Maoist strategy is to destroy the infrastructure and the Maoist outfits and the Naxalites have destroyed 110 school buildings, 74 panchyat buildings and three hospitals”.

On the issue of arrest of another petitioner in the matter, Kartam Joga, a Leftist leader on September 14, the affidavit said he was arrested in connection with April 6 incident when 76 CRPF personnel were killed in an ambush by Maoists.

However, sociologist Nandini Sunder, one of the petitioners, said she visited the Naxal-hit areas in the state and maintained that though Salwa Judum is in “animated suspension”, it has been revived under new name, “Dandakaranya Shanti Sangharsh Samiti”, which the state government has never acknowledged or punished its members for their illegal acts.

Further, villagers also refers to Special Police Officers (SPOs) as Judum when they carry out arson or killings under the guise of ‘Operation Green Hunt’.

Chhattisgarh Government filed a comprehensive affidavit about the steps being taken by it in Maoist-affected areas on various issues as per the August 31 direction of the court.

October 28
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – Authorities have arrested a man and his son who are believed to be members of an extremist anti-government sect that threatens law enforcement officials.

Police say 62-year-old Donald Joe Barber is charged with intimidating a witness. His son, 34-year-old Donald Jason Barber, is charged with possession of a forged instrument, possession of burglary tools and attempted burglary.

Police say the two are members of extremist group Sovereign Citizens, which uses “paper terrorism” to threaten law enforcement with false liens, arrest, trial and imprisonment. An investigation into the Barbers lasted 11 months before their arrest.

Donald Joe Barber’s wife, Brenda, told The Associated Press that the two men are not a danger to anyone. She said her husband has bonded out of jail but was unsure about her son.

Staunton, October 28 – Major General Sergey Girko, the head of the Scientific Research Institute of the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs, says that there are now more than 150 neo-Nazi groups in his country and that both their number and the number of extremist crimes is rising rapidly.

Speaking to an international conference in Moscow on combating extremist and terrorist groups and crime today, Girko acknowledged that for that reason as well as many others, “the operational situation in the area of countering extremism on the territory of the Russian Federation remains complicated” (www.vnii-mvd.ru/news/1128).

Girko said that “every year” the number of crimes of an extremist nature in Russia has been growing. “If in 2007, there were 356 such crimes registered” – a 35 percent increase over the year before – “then in 2008, this figure increased to 460 (up 29 percent) and in 2009 to 548 (up 19 percent).”

The current year has been no exception to this pattern, the MVD general said. During the first six months of the year, there were 370 such crimes recorded, up by 39 percent over the same period in 2009. And that figure suggests that there will be a comparable increase for the entire year as well.

Moreover, Girko continued, “the number of radical groups based on the ideology of national, racial and religious tolerance also continues to grow.” According to MVD figures, there are now “more than 150 radical neo-fascist groups” in Russia “whose members profess a cult of nationalism and racial superiority” and seek to implement it with violence.

The MVD institute director said that “we very well understand that statistics are not an absolutely exact barometer” in this area. “As law enforcement practice shows, at the initial stage, extremist crimes are sometimes classified as having been committed for other reasons” all the more so because extremist groups are often combined with ordinary criminal ones.

“In Russia,” he continued, “particularly in recent years,” the powers that be have adopted “a complex of legislative and organizational measures in order to react in an adequate fashion to the existing threats from the side of organized criminal formations of an extremist and terrorist direction.”

Among these steps, Girko said, has been “the creation of a government system of countering extremism in which a particular place undoubtedly belongs to law enforcement organs.” They in turn have created inside the MVD a special department, whose staff specializes in providing advice on how to respond to and then prevent extremist crime.

His own institute, Girko said, conducts research and makes recommendations in this area in order to “raise the level” of the understanding of front-line officers in the struggle with this kind of crime and to generalize on the findings of investigators so that what one group learns all can benefit from.

The institute’s research, he continued, shows how complicated and multi-faceted is the task of those who seek to combat such crimes, and Girko suggested that what is “required” now is the involvement of “all institutions of government power” in this struggle, with each being responsible for one or another sector.

While a great deal has been accomplished, Girko said, “work in this direction in many regions [of the Russian Federation] is not being carried out at all or is being carried out in an ineffective way.” In all too many places, such activities are limited to declarations of good intentions rather than continuing action.

Girko concluded by saying that Russia’s fight against extremist crimes can only benefit from the experiences of others who have assembled in Moscow for this conference, and he said that the speeches and deliberations of the group would be published so that they could benefit everyone who is engaged in this struggle.

MOSCOW, October 28 (Itar-Tass) – The Moscow City Court sentenced to life in prison student Vasily Krivets for 15 ethnic hatred murders.

The verdict is based on the ruling of the jury, who found the guilt of the defendant proved despite the fact that he pleaded not guilty.

The second defendant Dmitry Ufimtsev was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Krivets stated in the court that he pleads not guilty. Meanwhile, Ufimtsev confessed in five murders, instigating nationalistic hatred and the participation in an extremist group.

The trial was held behind closed doors and the judge read out only the title and resolutive part of the sentence.

The court found the evidence gathered by the Moscow SKP department sufficient to pass a guilty verdict to members of the extremist group National Socialistic Society Vasily Krivets and Dmitry Ufimtsev, spokesman for the Investigation Committee Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Thursday. “Krivets was found guilty of 15 ethnic hatred murders, two armed attacks, robbery, the light damage to health and the escape from custody as a member of the organized extremist group. Ufimtsev was found guilty of five murders as a member of the organized extremist group,” Markin noted.

“The criminal case versus Krivets and Ufimtsev was separated from the criminal case instituted in May 2008 against the extremist group National Socialistic Society, which committed more than 30 murders and other grave and heinous crimes in Moscow and the Moscow Region. Some 37 criminal cases were combined with the foresaid case,” Markin noted.

“During the investigation into the criminal case versus Krivets and Ufimtsev the investigators have made more than 30 searches at the crime scenes, more than 10 checks of testimony at the crime scenes, interrogated more than 80 injured parties and witnesses and conducted more than 20 identification procedures and over 30 searches. Moreover, a large number of objects and documents, which are important for the criminal case, were examined. The criminal case consists of 69 volumes,” Vladimir Markin said.

During an investigation experiment Krivets, 19, escaped from custody pushing away the police convoy at the platform of the Planernaya metro station on October 20, 2008. Then three policemen from the convoy regiment were brought to justice for negligence. The escapee was detained just a year later in August 2009 at the Kursky railway station, when the 21-year-old Moscow fugitive was trying to escape to Ukraine.

In May 2009 at the request of the general prosecutor the Russian Supreme Court put the National Socialistic Society on the list of the organizations recognized extremist and banned it in Russia. According to the law enforcement agencies, the National Socialistic Society was not officially registered, but united groups in 20 Russian regions, including in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as in other countries, namely England, Belarus, Canada and Estonia. The criminal network propagated the ideology similar to that of the National Socialism. Alongside, its ringleaders organized the combat training for members of the criminal community.

In April 2010 the Moscow District Military Court launched a trial versus 13 defendants accused of 27 murders, ethnic strife attacks, preparations for a terrorist act. Several defendants were members of the National Socialistic Society. In July the trial was interrupted due another complex psychiatric expertise for four defendants. Most defendants did not plead guilty or pleaded just partially guilty.

October 27

Six Catholics from Con Dau were convicted and sentenced for  protesting when authorities tried to stop a burial in a  church cemetery.
Thousands of Catholics braved the cold, rain, and wind to participate in a sit-in protest in front of the courthouse of Cam Le district, Da Nang. Hundreds of police and army in riot gear with guard dogs were deployed to keep them away from the court.

The group were charged with “disturbing public order, disorderly conduct, and attacking state security officers”. During the speedy trial on 27 October the defendants were deprived of their rights to a lawyer. After a one-day trial, at 5pm, the president of the court, Tan Thi Thu Dung, sentenced two Catholics to 12 months in jail, and  and gave nine months sentences to four others. The accused  all claimed their innocence.

On 4 May, during the funeral procession for Mary Tan, 82, police intervened to prevent the burial in the parish cemetery which had been seized to build a tourist resort. For almost an hour, there were clashes between 500 Catholics and agents, with many wounded and 59 people arrested.

Dung insisted that the six parishioners had incited riots, falsely accused the government, and instigated others to attack State officials on-duty. Catholic defendants maintained that they simply self-defended against the brutal attack of police.

Attorney Cu Huy Ha Vu who had been denied permission to defend the six Catholic defendants condemned the trial sentence disclosing that an anonymous source from the Cam Le People’s Court had told his associates that the sentence for each defendant had already been decided and approved by leaders of the local government and the Party; and hence a defence lawyer would deem unnecessary.

Speaking to BBC, the lawyer stated that the real cause of the Con Dau incident is the widespread and bold seizure of land by local authorities. “Taking land by force has become widespread. It happens everywhere,” he said.

“However, the incident at Con Dau stands out from the others as the local authorities have employed police and armed forces to violently dismiss the protest. That’s why it has caused fury not only among Catholics but also among those with conscience,” added lawyer Cu.

Thousands  of Catholics  and non Catholic sympathizers joined in candlelight vigils in Da Nang and Saigon. A letter from Bishop Paul Nguyen Thai Hop, president of the Vietnamese Bishop’s Peace and Justice Commission challenging the legality of the government’s seizure of the parish property was read at the Vigils.

With property values rocketing in Vietnam, the government has laid claim to many pieces of property, arguing that all property belongs to the people. In practice, the land is often seized, and then sold to developers who profit from their ties to the government. Bishop Nguyen pointedly asked whether “the decision of local authorities of Da Nang to seize Con Dau parishioners’ properties in order to sell them to Sun Investment Corporation” can be justified under law.

The bishop went on to question “why the government is pushing the peaceful Con Dau parishioners into current tragic situation, causing one death, many arrests, others facing total loss of properties, and dozens fleeing to another country seeking asylum, when the government’s duties are supposedly to protect the rights of the citizens, to stabilize their lives and their welfare.”

October 27 2010
More than 400 families are up in arms after a government agency ordered them to move out of a 20-acre land parcel in Tana Delta District.

The order violates a compromise deal they struck at the weekend with the management of the Tana and Athi River Development Authority (Tarda), according to their spokesman, Mr Dahir Bile.

Mr Bile also accused area DC Elias Gitonga Kithaura of backing the scheme to kick them out of the land.

“Last Saturday, we agreed that we shall stay on until our children, who are sitting their Form Four and Standard Eight national exams, complete their tests,” the spokesman told the Nation on Wednesday.

He said a follow-up meeting was to be held this week to form a team to speed up the relocation of the families.

The last attempt to evict the group was bloody with dozens of people, including police officers sustaining serious injuries.

Mr Bile asked Mr Kithaura to keep off the issue and allow villagers and Tarda to settle the issue amicably.

“Why is he (the DC) now ordering Tarda to evict people forcefully when there is an agreement in place?” asked Mr Bile, who is also a member of the district peace committee.

According to him, the agency’s tractors have started ploughing the land in readiness for the next planting season.

But in a quick rejoinder, the DC asked the families to stop squatting on private land and instead return to their original homes in nearby Danisa village.

Mr Kithaura said the families were compensated last year and had agreed to move out to pave the way for the expansion of the irrigation scheme. In the last financial year, the government allocated funds to Tarda for maize farming under the Economic Stimulus Package.

“The chief has a list of those who were compensated. I have been asked by Tarda to provide security so that the tractors can plough the farms. The families had threatened to raze the tractors,” said Mr Kithaura.

He also told the Nation that he was not aware of a compromise deal between the squatters and Tarda.

However, Tarda could not be reached for comment. The managing director, Mr Francis Agoya, was said to be in a meeting with his chief officers.

October 28

The ongoing standoff between tea firms and pickers over introduction of plucking machines may have far-reaching effects on the welfare of more than 800,000 work force in the industry.

Many are being declared redundant as the management continues to make use of machines.

Multinational firms are adamant over the use of machines.

But trade unionists representing workers led by the Central Organisation of Trade Union (Cotu) secretary-general, Mr Francis Atwoli, on the other hand, have vowed to ensure that it will not be work as usual in these companies unless the machines are withdrawn.

Kenya Plantation Agricultural Workers Union and Cotu called the strike two weeks ago, resulting in a number of pluckers in Nandi District burnt by the protesters.

The management of these companies has employed various tactics to ensure the strike is nipped in the bud before it paralyses their operations.

Some of the tactics are evicting striking staff from company houses and disconnecting water and electricity.

The companies through the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) also obtained a court order barring their employees from striking.

However, Mr Atwoli and KPAWU assistant secretary-general Henry Omasire says a court order they got from the Industrial Court overruled an earlier one by the KFE on behalf of the companies.

Oct 28
Johannesburg – The strike over pay and working conditions at dining franchisor Famous Brands [JSE:FBR] in Midrand became unruly on Wednesday, Gauteng police said.

Warrant Officer Mmakgomo Semono said striking workers threw stones at delivery trucks and buses as they arrived to pick up staff at around 16:30.

He said police were called in to calm the crowd of about 200 and no one was injured.

“One guilty person is known. We will be making arrests soon.”

Members of the Metal and Electrical Workers Union of SA (Mewusa) went on strike on Monday.

Mewusa union spokesperson, Mametlwe Sebei, said he was informed about the incident by shopstewards on Wednesday night.

Union workers “have been maintaining a high level of discipline” during the strike and the “provocateurs” were former employees of the company.

He said the union condemned unnecessary use of violence.

“We believe that the disengagement of members from work and the solidarity campaign… including the consumer boycott… is enough to bring company to its knees…”

October 27, 2010

VAN NUYS, Calif. (KABC) — Vandals struck Tuesday night and shattered large plate glass windows at several car dealerships in Van Nuys.

The Sherman Oaks Kia dealership on Van Nuys Boulevard was one of the many businesses hit by vandals around 9:45 p.m.

Miller Honda, Center BMW, Keys Audi, Car Factory and Keyes Toyota also suffered structure damage. A beauty salon and an adult store in the area were also vandalized.

Some didn’t hear about the damage until they turned on the morning news.

“When I saw Keyes, I said, ‘Uh oh, I’m right next door,’ Then I saw my sign, and I said, ‘Oh no, they got my store,’” said car dealer Michael Koudsi. “Well, it looks like it’s just the glass. I did jump out of bed and rushed over here though.”

All the businesses hit were on the west side of the street, leading authorities to believe that those responsible were most likely in a car.

Police said the vandalism appears to be fairly random

Authorities initially suspected that the vandals used a pellet gun or an actual firearm, but now they think marbles fired by slingshots caused the damage.

“It sounds like some kids just wanted to have some fun, but it didn’t seem like they hit the vacant buildings, so I don’t know if they were targeting certain people or just having fun,” Koudsi said.

So far, the damage appears to be confined to broken glass windows.

“I’m really happy that they didn’t get the cars, because that costs a lot more than a glass,” Koudsi said.

The broken glass will get replaced and the mess will get cleaned up, and everybody will go back to work knowing that it could have been worse.

There were people inside the dealerships at the time of the attacks, but no injuries were reported.

28 Oct 2010

NAIROBI  – More than 200,000 poor waterfront residents in the Nigerian oil hub of Port Harcourt face losing their homes in forced and potentially violent evictions planned by the local government under a scheme to clean up the troubled city, a report from Amnesty International said on Thursday.

The rights group is concerned that protesting residents could be injured or killed in skirmishes with the security forces who will be deployed alongside the bulldozers. It called on local authorities to suspend the evictions until they meet international human rights standards.

The Rivers State government has already destroyed several of the 40-plus informal settlements on Port Harcourt’s waterfront as part of a major urban redevelopment project launched in 2009.

“The evictions are increasingly being accompanied by an excessive use of force by Nigerian security forces,” Amnesty researcher Lucy Freeman told AlertNet.

Last year, police killed one person and shot 12 others at Bundu, one of the largest waterfront settlements, when residents demonstrated against plans to demolish their homes.

Once-vibrant Port Harcourt is the main city in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, but in recent years it has been beset by violent crime linked with militant gangs, who had stepped up their fight to secure a greater share of profits from the oil industry before an amnesty programme that began last year.

There are no accurate figures for how many people live in Port Harcourt’s waterfront areas, but estimates range from 200,000 to some half a million, according to the Amnesty report.

In 2009, over 13,000 people were evicted from the waterside Njemanze settlement, losing their homes and, in many cases, their personal property and businesses too.

They did not receive eviction notices, compensation or alternative accommodation, in violation of national and state laws, Amnesty said.

“One year on, many still have nowhere to live,” the group said in a statement, describing the harassment experienced by teenage boys who have been living on the streets since their homes were demolished.

Several families are sleeping on mats on the floor of a local church, while others are staying with friends and relatives.

EVICTIONS TO WORSEN POVERTY

The authorities have said they will continue to give residents a maximum of seven days’ notice to move, Freeman told AlertNet.

“These planned demolitions are likely to plunge hundreds of thousands of Nigeria’s most vulnerable citizens further into poverty,” Amnesty International’s deputy Africa programme director Tawanda Hondora said in a statement.

“The government should halt the waterfront evictions until they ensure they comply with international human rights standards.”

Amnesty called on the Nigerian authorities to consult the public over the redevelopment of the city – whose population numbers around 1.6 million – and to provide shelter for those due to be displaced.

The United Nations made similar appeals last year, but they were ignored, as was a stay order issued by Nigeria’s Federal High Court.

In a meeting with the community in 2009, the state governor threatened, “policemen will be there with their guns; army will bring their own; air force bring their own; navy will bring their own for me to go and take back my land,” according to the Amnesty report.

Details of the 50-year urban renewal project have not been made public, and property owners on the waterfront are being bought out by the government in a process Freeman described as “murky”. Their tenants, meanwhile, are getting nothing.

According to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, people who are forcibly evicted have the right to compensation, genuine consultation, adequate and reasonable notice, information on the proposed evictions and legal aid.

They also have the right to be present during an eviction and to identify the officials carrying it out.

“Nigeria has put in place legislation to protect tenants from unscrupulous landlords,” said Hondora. “It is hypocritical to say the least that once the state government itself becomes a landlord, it flouts its own rules.”

27 October

A LOCAL union at the centre of strikes last month in the garment industry threatened yesterday to renew work stoppages if the cases of suspended union representatives were not resolved by the end of the month.

Ek Sopheakdey, the secretary general of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, said the CCAWDU had informed the government and industry representatives of the plan in a bid to aid union representatives suspended pending court rulings on the legality of last month’s strikes.

“We will do the strikes in front of stores and clothing shops, and we will announce to the world that garment factories in Cambodia abuse workers’ rights,” Ek Sopheakdey said.

We will announce to the world that garment factories in Cambodia abuse workers’ rights.

Officials from the Ministry of Social Affairs, Ek Sopheakdey added, had requested that CCAWDU give them more time to resolve the dispute before holding strikes.

Phin Sophea, a union representative at the River Rich garment factory in Kandal province, said 34 representatives at the site had met last week with officials from the Ministry of Social Affairs, who asked them to sign a three-point pledge in exchange for their return to work.

The three points, Phin Sophea said, called for workers to respect company regulations, to respect the Kingdom’s Labour Law and to stop inciting illegal strikes.

“We could not accept this last point in the agreement because if we agree, it seems like we’ve accepted that what we did was illegal,” Phin Sophea said.

Ket Chhoeun, a member of the Committee for the Settlement of Strikes and Demonstrations at the Ministry of Social Affairs who met with the River Rich workers, declined to comment yesterday.

A CCAWDU report released on Friday of last week said there were 94 union representatives who remained suspended in connection with last month’s strikes.

A total of 683 workers were dismissed after they protested the suspensions and then failed to heed a court order asking them to return to work within 48 hours, the CCAWDU said.

Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said renewed legal action was “definitely on the table” in the event of a new round of strikes. He urged workers not to get involved, citing the negative impact a renewed work stoppage would have on the industry.

“If it comes around the second time, it won’t be simply about reputation – buyers will start to reconsider their operations … because this would be deemed as a sign of unrest, and more importantly, it would be a sign that even with the government’s attempts at intervention, the unions don’t respect the law,” Loo said.

Tuomo Poutiainen, the chief technical adviser for the International Labour Organisation’s Better Factories Cambodia programme, said new work stoppages “wouldn’t be very helpful” as the parties tried to resolve their disagreements.

“It’s necessary that both sides will take a bit of a step back and try to find those positive steps,” Poutiainen said.

Loo said GMAC figures indicated that just 67 union representatives remained suspended in relation to last month’s strikes, and that 358 had been dismissed.

ISLAMABAD — Rights group Amnesty International called on Pakistan Tuesday to investigate the alleged torture and killing of more than 40 political leaders and activists in the insurgency-torn province of Baluchistan.

Amnesty said the cases have occurred in the last four months against a backdrop of increasing political unrest and Pakistani military activities in the southwestern province which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

Violence has surged this year in Baluchistan and human rights activists have raised concerns about an increase in targeted killings in the province.

“The Pakistani government must act immediately to provide justice for the growing list of atrocities in Baluchistan,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International?s Asia Pacific director.

“Baluch political leaders and activists are clearly being targeted and the government must do much more to end this alarming trend.”

Amnesty warned that bullet-ridden bodies of those who have been abducted, many showing signs of torture, are increasingly being found across Baluchistan whereas previously bodies of the missing were rarely recovered.

Victims’s relatives and activists often hold Pakistan’s security forces and intelligence agencies responsible.

Amnesty said a previously unknown group, Sipah-e Shuhada-e Baluchistan, has also claimed responsibility for some of the killings.

“The Pakistani government must show that it can and will investigate the Pakistani military and Frontier Corps, as well as intelligence agencies, who are widely accused of playing a role in these incidents,” said Zarifi.

Hundreds of people have died since Baluch rebels rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region’s wealth of natural oil, gas and mineral resources.

Amnesty warned that the rise in disappearances and bodies being dumped has aggravated political tensions and led to reprisal killings by Baluch groups.

On August 14, gunmen shot dead at least 16 people in Baluchistan. Amnesty said 17 people — all from Punjab province — were killed and that the Baluchistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility.

In response to the report, Pakistan said it was working to implement a package of political and economic reforms, which was unveiled last November in a bid to grant the province more independence and boost wealth creation.

“The democratic government is trying its best to protect human rights as enshrined in the constitution,” said foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit.

There was no immediate comment from the military.

Israeli police and stone-throwing Arabs clashed in northern Israel on Wednesday as a group of extreme right-wing Israelis tried to march through the Arab Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm.

Israeli border police arrest an Arab-Israeli protestor in Umm Al-Fahm, on October 27. Clashes broke out as extreme rightwing Israelis marching under heavy police escort through the Arab town in northern Israel were met by scores of stone-throwing residents.

Hundreds of police clad in riot gear fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse angry Arab youths, many with scarves wrapped around their faces, who burned tyres and hurled stones in protest ahead of an extremist rally in their town.

Tensions were high as around 20 Israeli demonstrators turned up for a protest march calling for a ban on the radical wing of the Israeli Islamic Movement, which is led by the firebrand preacher Sheikh Raed Salah.

“Death to terrorists!” they shouted, waving banners reading: “Make the Islamic Movement illegal,” and “Death to Raed Salah,” although they were prevented from marching by police who hemmed them in with three coaches, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Police said they arrested 10 Arab Israelis for stone throwing, and at least one person was wounded — the town’s member of parliament, Afu Agbaria, who was taken to hospital after a tear gas canister slammed into his leg, an AFP correspondent said.

The controversial march roughly coincides with the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane, a right-wing extremist who routinely referred to Arabs as “dogs” and called for their expulsion from Israel.

“The Islamic Movement is part of the international Islamic jihad,” said MP Michael Ben Ari, who accused it of having ties to the Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Ahead of the march, Arab municipal officials and dozens of counter-protesters waving Palestinian flags gathered in the town, AFP correspondents said, as police deployed in force to prevent clashes.

“Free Palestine!” residents shouted as they waved Palestinian flags from the rooftops. “With our blood, with our souls, we sacrifice for you, Palestine!”

Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said several hundred police, including undercover units, were deployed in and around the town to prevent clashes.

“We have deployed large numbers in the vicinity of Umm al-Fahm and mobilised special units to maintain calm during a demonstration by Jewish activists,” he told AFP ahead of the controversial march, which was given the green light by Israel’s supreme court.

Agbaria, an MP from the bi-communal communist Hadash party, said the march was “provocation against the people of Umm al-Fahm and the Arab minority”.

“They are attacking the legitimacy of the Arab presence in the country in coordination with the right-wing extremists in the government,” he said.

Others were more blunt.

“We will not allow them to enter Umm al-Fahm. If they pass, it will be over our dead bodies,” Ahmad Buwerat, 75, said ahead of the march.

“We have Jews come here every day to visit the market and drink coffee, and they are welcome,” he said. “But these demonstrators are fascists and racists and Nazis.”

Kahane, an American-born rabbi and political leader, was shot dead by an Arab gunman in Manhattan in November 1990, and his Kach movement was outlawed by Israel in 1994 for inciting racism.

Israeli Arab political leaders fear, however, that his controversial ideas are gaining new currency under Israel’s predominantly right-wing coalition government.

Earlier this month Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lent his support for a bill that would require all new citizens to swear allegiance to Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state.”

Arab citizens, who make up 20 percent of the population, have called the bill racist and said it aims to delegitimise their presence.

Israel’s 1.3 million Arab citizens are Palestinians who remained in the country following the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, along with their descendants.

It came after they had been turned down for an employment program.

Young Muslims have been demonstrating against unemployment in the Spanish North African enclave of Melilla.

One policeman was hit by a thrown stone as the youths set up barricades in the streets, and set fire to cars and rubbish containers after they had been told they had not been selected for an employment plan.

The disturbances lasted for some five hours in the Muslim districts of the city, and forced the police to use anti-riot gear. Official figures from the Government say there were 50 demonstrators, but other reports speak of 100 or so, most of them under age.