World Globalisation Newswire Archive

The human rights issue has become the centerfold of media disinformation.

China is no model of human rights but neither are the US and its
indefectible British ally, responsible for extensive war crimes and human
rights violations in Iraq and around the World. The US and its allies, which
uphold the practice of torture, political assassinations and the
establishment of secret detention camps, continue to be presented to public
opinion as a model of Western democracy to be emulated by developing
countries, in contrast to Russia, Iran, North Korea and the People's
Republic of China.

CIPO-RFM in Oaxaca have documented to date 517 detentions and tortured people, 103 police and paramilitary incursions into their communities, 81 prison orders, 229 penal, civil and commercial processes, 263 people assaulted, 37 death threats and 27 murders.

This article follows the money trail of those profiting from the lumber extraction in Oaxaca State.

The village of San Isidro Aloapam is situated high in the mountains about 3-4 hours drive from Oaxaca city. The journey used to be shorter, but a quicker access road through the mountains has been blocked by villagers, fearful that it could be used for hit and run missions by armed paramilitaries. Like many indigenous communities the village is largely ignored by the political mainstream outside of election campaigns. Mexico’s indigenous population is discriminated against in every aspect of life including jobs, education and healthcare. The village is represented politically by indigenous umbrella organisation CIPO-RFM. The main language spoken by the people is an ancient language called Zapatec; many of the older people in the community do not speak Spanish. The village has a few shops but no bar. Alcohol is frowned upon in communities represented by CIPO-RFM as it has caused huge problems in the indigenous population including murder and domestic violence. The village has its own radio station, which is a vital tool of communication for people living in the more remote areas. Many of the programmes are in Zapatec with traditional music also a regular feature. The radio station also enables communication with the outside world, which offers some protection against paramilitary attacks from the PRIistas.

To raise awareness of the plight of the people of San Isidro Aloapam CIPO-RFM organised an international Encuetro or gathering attended by representatives of many different organisations including:

UK Indymedia, Earth First (USA), Earth First Roadblock (Canada), Ya Basta, Jóvenes en Resistencia Alternativa, UNIOS-COPAI, Movimiento por la Paz con justicia y dignidad, Colectivo Anarquista Acción Libertaria, Comité Popular Ciudadano-la otra campaña, la otra tabasco, Guaytalpa Nacajuca, pueblo Chontal, tabasco, Colectivo solidaridad con la Rebelión Zapatista, Barcelona, La olla móvil de Barcelona, kolectivo tod@s somos pres@s, Independientes; Mael Vizcarra Magallanes, Maria Elena Martínez, Gavioes Dafiel, TAIFA, REDMYCZ, Coordinadora Toscano de apoyo a la lucha zapatista, Florencia, Italia, C.C .AREA.(Italia), Periódico Apatía, ENHA D.F colectivo de la otra campaña, Individu@s (Oaxaca), Rafael Moreno González Madrid España, Colectivo de Resistencia Expresión Artística CREA (Oaxaca), Tlacoyos si hamburguesas no, Olga Durante Gómez de Barcelona, Brujula Roja, Red Zapatista, Colectivo de Resistencia Artística CREA, No Mas Muertes, Andres Contreras (compositor de música de protesta) and Askapena, País Vasco.

Cipo-RFM activist Pedro Bautista-Rojas explains the history of the indigenous struggle in Oaxaca and also the implications of the forest dispute for both the people of San Isidro Aloapam and their children.

Demetrio takes us to a spot in the forest where the repression began. The ‘plague’ he refers to is a uncommon disease that afflicts trees in the forest and can destroy large areas if left unchecked. For this reason it is quite legal to cut down diseased trees in the protected areas to stop the spread of the disease. However the wood from such trees has little values compared to that of a healthy one. The loggers from San Miguel have clearly been using a small outbreak of the disease as an excuse to cut down healthy trees for profit. The first thing that struck us was how many clearly diseased trees were still standing while the stumps left behind by the lumberjacks showed no sign of any infection.

One thing that struck us about the accounts given to us by the villagers of the repression in 2007 was that there were no inconsistencies. Every interview and statement given by the villagers backed up what we had previously heard. It is very clear that the authorities who have imprisoned five of the villagers have not bothered to hear their side of the story. In a region where money can buy anything including the law this is hardly surprising. The accounts of torture that took place in the Police station in the town of San Miguel are truly horrifying.

Another thing we noticed in this part of the forest was that all the ‘diseased’(this is an excuse to get round the law) trees that had been cut down by the loggers of San Miguel had three things in common. Firstly they were all very large. Secondly they were all placed right by the track thus minimising the time and cost of transporting them out of the forest. Thirdly the stumps displayed no signs of disease at all.

The companero pictured below talks not only of the legal battle to secure the future of the forest but also about the corruption they are fighting at the highest level. It seems more than probable that someone in the local municipal environmental offices is being paid a backhander by the loggers to break the laws that he or she is paid to uphold. Another fear the villagers have which seems well founded is that the tree disease (which the loggers use as an excuse for their activity) was deliberately introduced into the forest. It certainly seems convenient for the loggers that a previously healthy area of woodland has suddenly suffered an unexpected blight, which has given a green light to their activities.

Another woman who was beaten by the paramilitaries explains why their struggle to save the forest is so important.

Theresa Peres Mendez explains why she and other women from San Isidro Aloapam chose to defend the forest from armed paramilitaries at considerable personal risk.

An eye witness account of what happened during one of the fatal confrontations between the people of San Isidro Aloapam and the paramilitaries. Christina Peres Alavas explains what happened that day and also testifies that the two dead paramilitaries from San Miguel were killed by their own people not the people of San Isidro Aloapam who are committed to peaceful action. The murder of people from San Miguel by their own paramilitaries is entirely possible as the town (which is under the control of the PRI) has many deep running internal disputes. The confrontation with the people of San Isidro Aloapam could have been used to settle a couple of scores while getting someone else blamed.

Upon entering the forest one of the villagers gave us some of the history of the region as well as the recent events which had ended so violently for the local people. Visitors were encouraged to ask questions and verify any facts about the situation which were unclear. The forest itself is breathtaking and stretches up the mountain as far as the eye can see. The companero gave a pretty detailed account of what happened during the repression and also named the man believed to be responsible for the confrontation to begin with and the deaths that resulted from it.

We were also shown a tree that had been placed across the road by the villagers from San Isidro Aloapam. Its purpose was to stop armed paramilitaries from the nearby town of San Miguel from attacking the village by road in pickup trucks. The closure of the road has added over an hour to the journey made by villagers wishing to reach Oaxaca city.

Making UK Human Rights Compliant by 2012

(ARTICLE 19/CENCOS/IFEX) - Two announcers of La Voz que Rompe el Silencio community radio station, which is based in San Juan Copala, Oaxaca state, in southeast Mexico, were shot dead when traveling on the highway connecting Joya del Mamey to Putla de Guerrero, two settlements in Oaxaca. Dead are Felicitas Martinez Sachez, 21, and Teresa Bautista Merino, 24. Four other people were wounded.

Washington has obviously decided on an ultra-high risk geopolitical game with Beijing’s by fanning the flames of violence in Tibet just at this sensitive time in their relations and on the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. It’s part of an escalating strategy of destabilization of China which has been initiated by the Bush Administration over the past months. It also includes the attempt to ignite an anti-China Saffron Revolution in the neighboring Myanmar region, bringing US-led NATO troops into Darfur where China’s oil companies are developing potentially huge oil reserves. It includes counter moves across mineral-rich Africa. And it includes strenuous efforts to turn India into a major new US forward base on the Asian sub-continent to be deployed against China.

Humanitarian Interventionists and Benevolent Global Hegemonists, most of whom lack even a rudimentary understanding of China's long and complex history, share a particularly nasty trait. Many of these Globocops imagine because they have downloaded a few pages of separatist propaganda from tibet.org, and shed a tear or two while watching ‘Seven Years in Tibet,’ that qualifies them as China experts. They believe this qualifies them to pass judgment about whether China ‘deserves’ to remain intact or be forcibly Balkanized by the World's Only Remaining Superpower. Their attitude rivals that of the most contemptible 19th century imperialists.

Making UK Human Rights Compliant by 2012

On March 19, Direct Action to Stop the War successfully used Twitter for coordinating protest information. Today, Olympic Torch SF will attempt to pick up where DASW left, and expand the use of twitter into an open-publishing platform for news on the San Francisco Olympic Torch relay and the related protests.

For ongoing text-based coverage, please follow the SFTorch twitter account.

 http://twitter.com/sftorch

and of course here:
 http://www.indybay.org

PLUS:

LIVE VIDEO (if it works ;)

from Students for a Free Tibet:  http://blog.studentsforafreetibet.org/livesf/
from Direct Action to Stop the War:  http://www.justin.tv/dasw
from OlympicTorchSF.com:  http://www.olympictorchsf.com/
from Dimension7:  http://www.justin.tv/dimension7

TEXT UPDATES

from Students for a Free Tibet:  http://textmarks.com/sftorch
from Team Tibet:  http://twitter.com/teamtibet
from OlympicTorchFS.com:  http://twitter.com/sftorch

The NATO summit in Bucharest took place between April 2-4. Activists from Romania and abroad organized “Anti-NATO Days” between March 28 and April 5, as a form of protest. What follows is a daily chronology of events, starting with the repression and abuse by border guards, police and the mass-media, to the actions of solidarity by human rights organizations and foreign activists.

It is deeply saddening that so many fellow activists fall for this Whitehall-orchestrated stunt on Tibet...

They seem to forget all too easily that for five hundred years, hundreds of millions of indigenous peoples were slaughtered, decimated, deported, enslaved, starved, exterminated, impoverished, and forcibly assimilated into an emerging world system dominated by Western Europe.