Unrest brings Bolivia to a standstill

By Thomas Gebhardt

Cochabamba, Bolivia, Sept. 25 (IPS)— Protests, strikes and roadblocks have brought Bolivia to a standstill, while the first casualties have been reported, demands for modifications of government policies are becoming more and more strident, and some demonstrators are even calling for President Hugo Banzer to step down.

When the army was called out to clear roadblocks, the resultant clashes led to the deaths of three peasant farmers Sunday, jeopardizing the talks between the government and social groups that have been protesting for the past week.

“Out With the Government That Doesn’t Heed its People!’’ read a placard posted in the central square of the city of Cochabamba, in central Bolivia.

What began as an isolated struggle waged by a few social groupings such as teachers, has ballooned into a broad nationwide movement demanding that government policy be overhauled. Mobilizations have brought business as usual to a halt throughout the country.

Oscar Olivera, the head of the Coordinator for the Defense of Water and Life, an influential group in the department of Cochabamba, said that bringing about modifications of the policies implemented in Bolivia was more important than a simple change of government.

“Like all social movements, this one also has a political content, but one that depends on true democracy,’’ Olivera told IPS. “The idea that this could end in a change of government worries us, because what would come later? A Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada?’’ he quipped, referring to a former president and one of Bolivia’s main opposition leaders.

“What we want is not directly a change of government, but a change in the people’s economy. We cannot continue to live in the conditions we are bearing,’’ he added.

The tension in South America’s poorest country began to boil over on Sep 5, when some 3,000 students set out from the southern city of Oruro to march 75 kms to La Paz to demand increased funding for the Siglo XX University in the department of Potosí.

Once in La Paz, the students held daily street protests and clashed with the police who tried to disperse them with tear gas and rubber bullets.

On Sep 13, the federations of urban and rural teachers went on strike indefinitely, demanding a 50 percent wage hike and defending the public education system.

“The measure will not be lifted until the government grants the wage raise,’’ said Ramiro Cuentas, executive secretary of the Confederation of Urban Teachers of Bolivia. “Teachers are tired of earning 85 dollars a month.’’

On Sept. 14, the teachers and the Confederación Sindical Unica de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (central peasants and rural workers union) signed a “Pact of Unity.”

Small farmers are demanding a revision of the law governing the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA), which they say could be used to take away the small holdings of farmers. The protesters are also calling for the creation of a university for small farmers, credit, and insurance for rural workers.

The rural protesters swelled the ranks of the demonstrators at several points around the country, and on Sept. 18 roadblocks began to be mounted.

Simultaneously, local residents from the tropical coca-producing region of Chapare in the department of Cochabamba began to mobilize against the presence of the army in their area.

The rest of the protesters expressed their solidarity with the people of Chapare, who are opposed to the construction of three army posts that are to be built with United States financing.
Bolivians use stones to block a highway in Cochabamba.

The roadblocks effectively cut off traffic between Bolivia’s biggest cities: La Paz, El Alto, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Sucre, Potosí and Oruro. The government responded by sending out 3,000 army troops and police to clear the highways and roads.

“We are not going to allow a handful of intolerant teachers and coca farmers to continue causing grave damages,’’ warned government minister Guillermo Fortún Suárez.

But after the army troops broke through with bulldozers, tear gas, and firearms, the protesters regrouped and built new barricades.

With the continued roadblocks and truck traffic severely limited throughout the country, shortages have begun to be felt in the cities. The price of tomatoes rose twofold in Sucre, and the cost of beef and fruit is beginning to soar.

Thousands of chickens starved to death on farms around the city of Cochabamba because their rations which are trucked in from the department of Santa Cruz never arrived.

Alfredo Maldonado, who owns several chicken farms, dumped 3,200 dead chickens in the central square of the city of Cochabamba in protest, leaving them outside the town hall and the seat of the representative of the national government in the department of Cochabamba.

“Enough losses! Why don’t they just start talking once and for all, and find solutions to the country’s crisis,’’ said Maldonado.

But the dialogue between government delegates and the representatives of the sectors in conflict, which began over the weekend, has been put in danger by the deaths of the three peasant farmers in Sunday’s clashes.

The repression “is just another one of the many errors committed by this government,’’ said parliamentary Deputy Evo Morales, the main leader of the coca-growers.

New proof that Colombian military committed ‘98 massacre

By Chris Geovanis

Chicago, Illinois, Sept. 19— Four survivors of a 1998 massacre of Colombian villagers in the town of Santo Domingo arrived in Chicago this week to make final preparations to testify at a Sept. 22-23 “Tribunal of Opinion” being convened to investigate the incident. The Tribunal has been organized by Northwestern University’s Center for International Human Rights, Amnesty International and other US, Colombian and international organizations, at the request of Colombian groups who charge that the military has consistently impeded an open investigation into the massacre. Organizers and participants will convene a press conference on Thursday morning to discuss the upcoming Tribunal.

Counsel for the victims report that witnesses will testify that the Colombian military’s Aerial Combat Command Unit #2 bombed their village, and will introduce “incontrovertible evidence” from a highly placed US government source that US military aid and equipment was used by that unit in the operation. The Colombian military — which has refused to open a formal investigation into the massacre — has repeatedly denied that allegation, asserting instead that the massacre was caused by the explosion of a guerrilla bomb. Independent FBI analysis of forensic evidence has shown that bomb fragments can be linked to munitions known to be carried by at least one Colombian Air Force helicopter flown at the scene of the massacre. Approximately 19 people, including seven children, were killed in the incident, and another 25 were injured. Villagers also allege that the Colombian military sacked the village in the wake of the bombing.

Tribunal jurists will include former Illinois Supreme Court Justice Seymour Simon; Cook County Public Defender Rita Fry; Bernardine Dohrn of Northwestern University’s Children and Family Justice Center; and two former State Senators, Jesus Garcia and Dawn Clark Netsch. The Tribunal has assigned lawyers to present evidence and argument defending the Colombian military’s version of events.

Human rights activists have argued that the Santo Domingo massacre fits a sweeping pattern of human rights violations by the Colombian military and its paramilitary affiliates that raises grave concerns about US military aid to the Colombian government.

The Chicago Tribunal is one of many that are being organized in countries including Italy and Spain as part of the International Campaign Against Impunity: Colombia Demands Justice, which was initiated by a coalition of hundreds of Colombian popular organizations and human rights groups.

Source: Center for International Human Rights: www.law.nwu.edu/humanrights

Activists protest World Bank-funded Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline

Alex Jones

Washington, DC, Sept. 20— Activists from various groups gathered in front of the World Bank Headquarters late this afternoon to protest World Bank support of the proposed Chad-Cameroon pipeline. The pipeline would be 1070 km in length, and would transfer oil from Doba to Cameroon’s Atlantic coast.

The total cost of the project is estimated to be $3.5 billion. The World Bank and IMF together would provide $190 million in loans to the governments of Chad and Cameroon. Additional funds would be provided by Exxon-Mobil, Shell, and Elf.

The activists maintained that the pipeline would destroy rainforest and exploit the already poverty-stricken nations. “Western institutions like this lend money in a way that is not genuinely constructive in the region,” said one activist. “The pipeline goes directly through some of the last remaining rainforest in Africa. The forest destruction is directly in conflict with the World Bank’s own forest policy.” said Antonia Juhasz of the American Lands Alliance.

Protesters came from a diverse array of organizations, from environmentalists to advocates of social reforms. “We’re here in support of those protesting the Chad-Cameroon pipeline because we know the kind of free-trade supported by the World Bank and the IMF enriches corporations at the expense of working people, their environments, and their communities,” said Tracy Lingo of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union(HERE).

Lingo also said that 60% of HERE Union members are Ethiopian, and that most have come to the US to flee readjustments imposed on their home country by the World Bank and IMF.

“[The pipeline] is representative of what is wrong with the World Bank, and the socially and economically destructive projects that they fund,” said Nathan Wyeth of the Sierra Student Coalition.

Protesters spoke against World Bank policy for several hours through the late afternoon, picketing the Bank’s front entrance, and sometimes chanting “No blood for oil.” One of the speakers criticized the World Bank for making loans to projects like the pipeline.

“We don’t like the pipeline, [the World Bank] ignores the indigenous people’s issues,” said another activist.

The protesters frequently criticized the failure of the World Bank to evaluate the impact of oil and fuel projects, asserting that living conditions for people in the region would actually worsen.

According to the World Bank, the pipeline’s construction would take four to five years, after which Chad and Cameroon will benefit from oil revenues over a 25-year production period. However, critics of the Bank’s plan contend that the people living in the region will not feel the impact of the pipeline’s revenue. The governments of both countries have had a long history of human rights violations.

When asked what he thought of the protest, one World Bank employee said, “It’s their right.” In regards to the pipeline’s construction, he said, “I agree with letting [the governments of Chad and Cameroon] borrow money.”

Source: Direct Action Media Network
damn-d@lists.tao.ca

Allies deliberately poisoned Iraq public water supply in Gulf War

By Felicity Arbuthnot

Sept. 17— The US-led allied forces deliberately destroyed Iraq’s water supply during the Gulf War - flagrantly breaking the Geneva Convention and causing thousands of civilian deaths.

Since the war ended in 1991 the allied nations have made sure that any attempts to make contaminated water safe have been thwarted.

A respected American professor now intends to convene expert hearings in a bid to pursue criminal indictments under international law against those responsible.

Thomas J. Nagy, Professor of Expert Systems at George Washington University with a doctoral fellowship in public health, told the Sunday Herald: “Those who saw nothing wrong in producing [this plan], those who ordered its production and those who knew about it and have remained silent for 10 years would seem to be in violation of Federal Statute and perhaps have even conspired to commit genocide.”

Professor Nagy obtained a minutely detailed seven page document prepared by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, issued the day after the war started, entitled Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities and circulated to all major allied Commands.

The report stated: “Failing to secure supplies will result in a shortage of pure drinking water for much of the population. This could lead to increased incidents, if not epidemics, of disease and certain pure-water dependent industries becoming incapacitated.”

The report concludes: “Full degradation of the water treatment system probably will take at least another six months.”

During allied bombing campaigns on Iraq the country’s eight multipurpose dams had been repeatedly hit, simultaneously wrecking flood control, municipal and industrial water storage, irrigation and hydroelectric power. Four of seven major pumping stations were destroyed, as were 31 municipal water and sewerage facilities - 20 in Baghdad, resulting in sewage pouring into the Tigris. Water purification plants were incapacitated throughout Iraq.

Article 54 of the Geneva Convention states: “It is prohibited to attack, destroy or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population” and includes foodstuffs, livestock and “drinking water supplies and irrigation works.”

The results of the allied bombing campaign were obvious when Dr. David Levenson visited Iraq immediately after the Gulf War, on behalf of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

He said: “For many weeks people in Baghdad-- without television, radio, or newspapers to warn them-- brought their drinking water from the Tigris, in buckets.

“Dehydrated from nausea and diarrhea, craving liquids, they drank more of the water that made them sick in the first place.”

Water-borne diseases in Iraq today are both endemic and epidemic. They include typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis, cholera and polio (which had previously been eradicated), along with a litany of others.

A child with dysentery in 1990 had a one in 600 chance of dying - in 1999 it was one in 50.

Source: The Scotland Sunday Herald

Outraged indigenous attack police station over racist indifference

By Will Weissert

Fray Bartolome De Las Casas, Guatemala, Sept. 23— The release of two policemen late Friday ended a confrontation with local residents who besieged a police station, threatened to kill the officers and burned government property.

Residents of this largely indigenous inhabited town said Saturday that police insensitivity toward Mayan Indians motivated the confrontation, in which a mob ignited a huge bonfire, burning motorcycles, typewriters and chairs looted from the station.

The mob violence broke out in Fray Bartolome de las Casas, 95 miles (150 kms) northwest of Guatemala City, after a police truck ran over a woman here Friday.

“The opinions they have of us Indians are drastic,” said Andres Ayu, a first grade teacher in a nearby hamlet. “This time they tried to cover up evidence and dismiss a crime against us. They got a surprise when we arrived at the station to really show our feelings.”

About 500 angry villagers took two police chiefs hostage. Those officers escaped a few hours later. About 20 other police, briefly trapped inside the station by the fire, said the mob chanted that they would toss the two captured officers into the flames.

One of the hostages, Obidio Escobar, was tied to a wall in a jail cell with a mob of locals standing guard outside, threatening to burn him alive.

“I saw some of my friends planning to join the mob,” said Escobar, chief of police for this steamy mountain town of 33,000. “I just had to wait until they were given the chance to stand guard” in order to escape, he said.

Less than a block away, the 20 officers who spent hours trapped in the area’s only police station talked the rest of the mob into releasing the group’s second hostage, officer Marcelino Mendoza.

Their release marked an emotional end to a chaotic scene set in motion Friday morning when a police vehicle crashed into a roadside stand, leaving a 23-year-old mother-of-one with serious leg injuries.

Police indifference to the accident -- “the officer claimed nothing was wrong with me and then he left,” said victim Arella Coc —enraged the townspeople.

Locals, many of whom speak only traditional Mayan languages, accuse authorities here of racism and said Friday’s abductions constituted a protest without unnecessary violence.

“It’s a lack of respect for the police, it’s that and nothing else,” Alfred Ku, a local shop owner, said of the incident. “But how can people respect a police force that fails to respect them?”

Source: Associated Press

UK jury acquits Greenpeace biotech crop protesters

London, United Kingdom, Sept. 20, (ENS)— Twenty-eight Greenpeace volunteers were cleared today of causing criminal damage to a test crop of genetically modified maize (corn) in eastern England.

The verdict handed down in Norwich Crown Court marks a second failure for state prosecutors after the campaigners were acquitted of theft in April. A charge of criminal damage was retabled after the jury in the first trial failed to reach a verdict.

The two trials were sparked by high profile Greenpeace raids on genetically modified (GM) crop test sites in July last year.

Activists were arrested by police at Lyng, Norfolk on July 26, 1999 as they destroyed and bagged plants in a protest against genetically modified crop field trials authorized across Britain.
Greenpeace was elated and encouraged by the ruling. Speaking immediately after the verdict, Lord Peter Melchett, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said, “We’re extremely happy with the verdict which totally vindicates our campaign to prevent genetic pollution of the environment.”

“We are delighted that an English jury was convinced that the Greenpeace volunteers were rightly acting to protect property and the environment when they cut down and bagged the crop of GM maize,” he told reporters.

Greenpeace is now expected to seek to have its legal costs, estimated at $353,000, paid by the prosecution service.

The verdict will put more political pressure on the government’s controversial program of “farm scale” genetically modified crop trials.

“We will put emphasis on working with local communities to create GM-free zones throughout Britain,” Sir Peter said after the activists’ first acquittal in April.

Over a thousand GM free zones have been declared in Norfolk - from cottage gardens to large commercial farms. Four farms have withdrawn from the British government’s GM field trials program in Norfolk.

Paramilitaries kill up to 33 Colombians

Bogota, Colombia, Sept. 22— Suspected right-wing paramilitary gunmen killed at least 13 people, and possibly up to 33, in twin attacks in two of Colombia’s northern provinces, police and local media said Friday. They said the bloodiest of the two attacks occurred in a sparsely populated region of Cordoba province, near the main jungle stronghold of Carlos Castano, Colombia’s dreaded leader of the right-wing paramilitary AUC. A terse police report on the attack said heavily armed gunmen in combat fatigues pulled into a village in sport utility vehicles late Wednesday and rounded up nine suspected “guerrilla collaborators,” including a teenage boy. The nine were then slaughtered with machetes and bursts of automatic gunfire, it said. The official police report added few details and stopped short of blaming paramilitaries for the attack. A witness interviewed on local television, meanwhile, said the killers wore trademark AUC arm bands.

Source: Reuters