World Repression Feature Archive

Time lines of events:
Wed-Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun

After a demonstration for freedom of movement was attacked with pepper spray, baton charges and tear gas on the Bordercamp's third day, all actions and demonstrations relating to the bordercamp in Strasbourg were declared illegal. The denial of the right to protest was confirmed when media activists of the Publix Theatre Caravan and Indymedia were removed from the Strasbourg city centre on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Despite the ban protests continued with prisoner solidarity and street theatre. The last action of the camp was marked by leaving in a mass exodus convoy on Sunday.

This first Europe-wide noborder camp was initiated by the Noborder network and organized by activist groups from a number of European countries. The camp consisted of 10 days of actions, workshops and discussions around the central demand of 'Freedom of Movement and Settlement for Everyone', bringing together activists, migrants and artists from across Europe in a laboratory of creative resistance and civil disobedience.

Strasbourg was chosen because it is home to the central headquarters of the Schengen Information Systems [SIS], the database being used to store details of immigrants (legal or otherwise) the details of terrorists and political protestors (even only suspected ones!) and especially 'anti-globalisation' protestors. From here the project d.sec was born,which attempts to mix the cyber-activism with the activist movements of Europe.

Radio Noborder Bus:
http://noisebase.t0.or.at:4000/noborder

Radio SIS [offline now]
http://freeteam.nl:8000/sis32
http://paranoia.autistici.org:8000/noborder

More radio info at www.noborder.org/strasbourg/radio

Reports:
July 28th: Sunday report
July 27th: Saturday timeline
July 26th: Friday round-up | Virtual border action | Court case
July 25th: Media activists removed from city centre | Days events | Street Theatre pics | Pics and article
July 24th: Pics of the day | Press Release from the NoBorder Collective | Noborder Protests Declared Illegal In Strasbourg | Latest + witness reports
July 23rd: Pink-Silver and Black Block
July 22nd: Noborder Demo at Euro Court of Human Rights - Photos

Previous reports:
1 | 2 | 3 | pics
Resources:
noborder.org | d'sec | Statewatch

In February this year more than 100 Israeli Army reservists signed a statement saying they would refuse to continue serving in the West Bank and Gaza Strip because Israel's policies there involved "dominating, expelling, starving and humiliating an entire people." The number of so-called refusniks quickly reached 376and continues to grow.

Today, one conscientious objector has been sentencedto 14 days imprisonment.

Read full report.

Although officially agreeing with a government ban on all marches, thousands of Iranians demonstrated in Tehran yesterday to commemorate the storming of a Tehran student dormitory by right-wing vigilantes on 8 July 1999. In theattack dozens of students were reported to have been killed, carried out by riot police and the hard-line Ansar Hizbollah faction.

This year, students aimeded to forestall such right-wing violence by complying with the government ban, instead pouring their energy into publicising their cause and reviving a number of progressive newspapers shut down over the past years. They are also pressing for an investigation into the case of Ahmad Batebi, who became the face of the student movement after he was condemned to 15 years in prison for holding up a bloodied shirt during a protest.

Conservatives view the student movement as the greatest threat to their grip on power, and have repeatedly tried to brand them as foreign-sponsored troublemakers - a label that carries strong stigmata among the generally nationalist Iranian population.

Demo report | Full article

Related articles:
Footage Iran Tribunal | MayDay in Tehran

On Wednesday 26th June during demonstrations in Buenos Aires the police shot in the head and killed two young men in an execution style murder. Tear gas was also used against the anti-government protesters in the worst riots since the government was toppled last December.

On the following day thousands of people took to the streets outside the National Congress Building to protest over the deaths, and calling for President Eduardo Duhalde to resign. At the same time teachers and state workers also went on strike against the government's repression and Argentina's worsening economic crisis, brought on by the austerity measures imposed by the IMF. On Friday 29th the governor of the State of Buenos Aires ordered the arrests of two policemen and suspended over 100 others after a newspaper published photographs which showed the police shooting one of the demonstrators in cold blood.

A statement from IMC Argentina said "We just received notice that one of the murdered piqueteros is Dario Santillan, 21 years old, a friend from the La F Neighborhood. Dario, part of the MTD (Unemployed Worker's Movement) in the area, was a bricklayer who worked every day in a factory making bricks for a new community hall. He lived on land taken a few months ago, on a vacant farm. All of us participating in Indymedia had the fortune of sharing with him several pickets, assemblies and unforgettable conversations. In these moments we don't have words to express our pain and our anger. His murderers will pay for having stolen from us this beautiful friend."

Read reports discribing the huge mobilisation of homeless people, workers, assemblies, students, and leftist parties that took the city center for several hours. The roads were again blocked and travel was impeded in Neuqu»n, Salta, Jujuy, Mendoza, Ri€ Negro, Chaco, Tucum∑n, Santa Fe, Catamarca, La Pampa, and various parts of the country. Media coverage of the events was also criticised for serving the powerful's agenda. "The crisis has caused two new death", was the title in the local newspaper as if the crisis had shot the bullets without resorting to the services of the police. Right after that, amounting to the intimidation campaign, the same daily said that today "they will try to march to the Plaza de Mayo", as if this were an exploit, rather than a right.

[ Argentina IMC | Argentina IMC in english | Summary of Available Photos & Audio]

On June 20, a Dutch court ruled that Indymedia.NL has to remove links to mirror-sites of German magazine Radikal, in a lawsuit initiated by German railway company Deutsche Bahn. Deutsche Bahn demanded that Indymedia deletes an archive page with links to sites that link through to two notorious articles on blocking nuclear transports, originally published in German magazine Radikal.

The links Indymedia.NL has to remove are part of reactions to an article on a previous lawsuit by Deutsche Bahn against Dutch internet provider XS4ALL, which hosted the Radikal page. Interestingly, only the two articles are illegal in the Netherlands, not Radikal as such. But since XS4ALL was not able to remove the articles only, it was initially forced to take down the whole site. Indymedia.NL is the first victim of the new Deutsche Bahn campaign that targets hyperlinks to the many mirror sites that sprung up after the XS4ALL case. Google and Altavista have received letters to the same effect.

The ruling of the court states that linking directly and indirectly to the illegal articles is not allowed, a worrying novelty in internet litigation. Prohibiting indirect links like this attacks one of the basic principles of the internet and severely limits the freedom of speech.

More info and updates on IMC Netherlands.

The legal aftermath after the demonstrations against the EU summit and Bush visit to Gothenburg/Sweden last summer display serious evidence of violation of human rights and makes new precedents in Swedish legal history. According to Swedish legal practice, the sentences are ten folded longer and harsher then it's precedents, clearly showing it is a matter of political trials and political prisoners:
- 102 trials, 52 sentences of civilian citizens, 450 people are identified as suspect and awaiting investigation.
- Excessive long incarcerations of the accused people with up to 3 months in isolation cells.
- Sentences of up to 2.5 and 4 years (many of the prosecuted are minors with no criminal records)
- The High Court has, to this date, not tried an appeal of any of the cases pertaining to the occurrences in Gothenburg.
- No enquiries into the police conduct (live ammunition shootings into the demonstrations - leaving a person fighting for his life - neither to the siege of the schools Schillerska or Hvitfeldska and the manipulation of video evidence.

An international day of action in support for the Gothemburg prisoners was called on Wednesday 5 of June. Reports from Moscow and Warsaw.

More info and call for justice | Solidarity Campaign in Sweden contacts. | Indymedia Sweden

CAMPAIGN OF HARASSMENT TO INDEPENDENT MEDIA

For the second time in a very short period, the Israeli police have begun an investigation against Indymedia Israel. The first investigation was instigated by the Israeli Ministry of Communication two months ago. The present one is in reference to an article tittled "Israel Starts Up Factories of Death" dated on March 29, and which had been deleted from the website newswire the same day by one of the Indymedia Israel volunteers. The current complaint being made to the police, and followed up by Israel's "National Unit for Computer Crimes", can be seen as part of a wider campaign being carried out by certain right-wing private and governmental interests, against both the democratic right to free speech and the right to privacy, with the broader intent to quash any form of critical dialogue.

Full report and an interview with a volunteer from IMC-Israel here
More info: IMC-Israel | Picture

THREE DAYS THAT SHOOK VENEZUELA

In a stunning reversal of the pro-business coup that ousted him from power on Friday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has returned to the presidential office. Mass protests had erupted in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas immediately after the coup. Thousands of people stormed the presidential palace, 'interim-president' Carmona fled and was later arrested. Read more.

On Friday morning, the Venezuelan army forced President Hugo Chavez to step back from power and put him under arrest. The president of the business council Fedecamaras, Pedro Carmona Estanga, was appointed to head an interim government.

The coup followed days of strikes and mass protests which had been initiated and organised by business councils and business-friendly trade unions. For several months, the national oligarchy opposed to the planned social and land reforms, had provoked civilian opposition to the Chavez-led government. The US-government and international financial institutions had also criticised Chavez for his non-compliance with their demands and had made clear that they would support his removal. Read more here and here.

Background info from:
NarcoNews | Zmag | Schnews

Latest updates IMC-Palestine | IMC-Israel
Click here for coverage, reports and timelines of events.

After an escalation of suicide bombings in its cities, and using the pretext of 'self-defence', Israel launched Operation Protective Wall on 29 March 2002. What started with a raid on Arafat's Ramallah HQ has turned into the most intense and bloody assault on the Palestinian population of the West Bank since the state of Israel was declared in 1948. The world, by remaining silent, gave Israeli prime-minister Ariel Sharon a green light to inflict as much terror and destruction as deemed fit . And there seemed to be no limit to his capacity for terror. Tanks, bulldozers and APC's rolled into every West Bank city, while missile-firing helicopters lurked overhead. Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested; untold numbers, well into the hundreds, have been murdered or maimed, and cities have been reduced to piles of rubble. Now, the battered and traumatised survivors of this massacre wait for the invasion to stop and for the world to help them.

Urgent Call to Action:Come to Palestine | Electronic action against the occupation | Appeal fron 'internationals' inside PA's compound


Images: The War on Palestine | Recent photos from Ramallah
Video: Tanks & activists in Beit Jala | "Internationals" demo in Bethlehem
Maps of the Occupies Territories.
Article "IMC-Palestine: Be the Media".
Report from inside the masacre in Jenin
Reports from a British international inside PA's compound: 26/04 | 26/04</ a>
Life under curfew by IMC-Palestine. Contact IMC-Palestine on 011-972-2-277-7558
IMC-Italy dossier on Palestine (En)
List of destruction and vandalism of Palestinian installations and infrastructure by the IOF.
Regularly updated compilation of Palestine solidarity protests worldwide.

G8 PROTESTS AFTERMATH Feb 18 2002

Finally, responsibilities seem to be coming out to light in the actions of the police during the G8 protests in Genoa, Italy, last summer. Italy's interior minister revealed that he ordered police to shoot any protesters who breached police security lines and made it inside the "Red Zone". He is now under pressure to resign.

Report 1 | Report 2

NOBORDER ACTIVIST THREATENED WITH DEPORTATION

LATEST NEWS:
22 Feb - Nico was actually served with a deportation order for 3 years.

An appeal to this decision was made by Nico's layer, although the Spanish immigration authorities stated that they were not aware of such an appeal. It is still not clear how the situation will develop, and it seems that his case is up in the air at the present time. No final date for Nico's deportation has been set yet. Meanwhile Nico has to present himself to the police station once in a forthnight. More...

10 Feb - Nico has a chance to stay. More...

Videos: 1 (protest) | 2 (background)

On January 30th, police violently attacked a peaceful protest camp at the gates of the immigrant detention center in Malaga, Spain. They protested against the deportation of immigrants. Two of the protestors were unlawfully arrested, severely beaten and kept in prison for two days. Currently they are on police bail.

On February 1st, the Spanish Immigration Office notified one of them, Nicolas Sguiglia, that a deportation order will be activated on Saturday 9th of February. The appeal process sets the FINAL DEADLINE on February 15th. Nico would be deported to Italy, as he has dual Italian/Argentinean nationality.

Nico is a permanent resident of Malaga, where he has been studying for several years. He has full legal rights to live anywhere in the European Union, however the Spanish government is using a legal loophole that gives full power to the local Government Representative to deport foreigners without charges being proven in court.

The fax campaign in the Spanish State to prevent Nico's deportation has received international support, for example Barbed Wire Britain and The Voice Jena, Germany, have already expressed their support. Also a new London Social Centre supports the campaign.

Background information | Campaign's contact email | No Border network | Foto

20,000 DEMONSTRATE IN GENOA Jan 20 2002

Sunday the 20th of Jan, was a sombre but inspiring day of rememberance in the city of Genoa. On the city streets more than 20,000 people remembered Carlo Giuliani in a touching and passionate, yet peaceful demonstration.

The global movement still awaits for truth and justice about the events in Genoa that resonate from the dead to touch the lives of the living.

Images from the streets: Pic 1 | Pic 2 | Foto

PEACE DEMOS - KARACHI Jan 07 2002

A peaceful candlelight demonstration at Hasan Square, Karachi was forcibly dispersed by police on Jan 7th 2002. Armed police officers manhandled women and children who were amongst the protesters who had gathered to urge restraint between Pakistan and India. Two demonstrators, Aslam Martin and Javed Iqbal Burki, were arrested.

The vigil was organised under the umbrella of the Joint Action Committee for Peace, which includes about 30 non-government organisations and a large number of unaffiliated citizens. Permisson for the rally had been provided by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on the previso that there would be no march.

Full report
From Media Workers Against War
pakistanis4peace.org

ANTI WAR PROTESTS IN COLOMBIA 10 Nov 2001


Democracy has been served a fatal blow after the death toll of three protestors shot dead by police and suspected government agents on November 7 and 8 respectively.

Two students were killed only a day after student Carlos Giovanny at the National University in Medellin was murdered by police in a second day of anti-war demonstrations and in the memory of Giovanny on November 8.

The solidarity protest took place in conjunction with other actions at other universities in Colombia. The protest had taken place in defiance of the murder of Giovanny but was again met with violence. Suspected government agents killed pharmaceutical students David Santiago Jaramillo Urrego and Juan Manuel Jimenez Escobar at the University of "Antioquia". Medical student Carlos Giovanny Blanco Leguzamo of Colombia National University was killed when anti-war protest against the US led war against Afghanistan in Bogota on November 7 were met with violence. Students faced the violent confrontation when police invaded a university campus where Carlos was shot at around noon.

The Police commander denies police are responsible for the shooting but witnesses claimed the shot came from behind police lines. Corporate media failed to report both tragedies. [Photo]

AFTER THE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN THE US


After the hijacked airplane attacks on key buildings in the USA western security forces have begun outlining new "anti-terrorism" measures. These seem to include the criminalisation of Europe's social movements. As a result, in the Spanish State 24 activists have recently been arrested, and in Italy 60 people are accused of 'association leading to terrorism'. Meanwhile Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berluscony, claims links between "Islamist terrorism and the anti globalisation movement", by declaring that they have a "strange unanimity" and that "both are the enemies of western civilisation".

In the Spanish State, the Social movements of Catalonia are being singled out, and since last January they are suffering an unprecedented repressive offensive not seen in such a scale since Franco's times. Antimilitarists, anticapitalists, social centres, okupas, emigrants, amongst other groups, are being continuously harassed and repressed often under the draconian Spanish Anti-Terrorist laws. This campaign of criminalisation has been carried out through a series of political and security plots promoted directly from the Central Government Delegation in Catalonia and the Spanish Ministry of Interior, in which the Security forces, corporate media and the judiciary are joining efforts in this "war on terrorism".

Meanwhile several reports of physical and psychological torture are coming out of police stations and jails, and a campaign of support for these arrested is now taking place with demonstrations and actions in several cities of Catalonia. Activists from Terrassa have affirmed that "the objective of this criminalisation campaign is to hinder our mobilisation capability, as well as to try to isolate our movement from civil society."
- Read full story | Demo Photo
- Communique by the Social Movements in Catalonia
- Click here to demand the immediate release of all these arrested or in jail.
- IMC-Barcelona dossier (Spanish)

In Italy, on Tuesday 18th of September, 100 raids were carried out by police in several anarchist Social Centres, squats and private homes all over the country. 60 people are formally under investigation for association leading to terrorism. The blitz was part of the State Prosecutor investigation into the movement "Solidarieta' Internazionale".

On the other hand, the Pinelli Social Center in Genoa and the Memorial to Carlo Guliani, the activist shot dead by the Carabinieri during the G8 protests last July, were targeted by fascist fire bombs on Sunday 16th of September. Many activists in Italy have been claiming links between the Italian security forces and neo-fascist groups, as well as fearing a return the State's repressive campaigns of the 70's and 80's.
- Full report on ainfos
- IMC-Italy

ANTI-G8 PROTESTS IN GENOA Jul 19 - 21 2001

Appeal for filing a suit for the Diaz school raid:Click here to find more about it.

Latest: Monday 1st October. Three German protesters are still in jail in Genoa. They've been reporting police butality and torture. Click here to send them your solidarity.

It was the biggest mobilisation against the globalisation of capitalism yet: An estimated 200,000 people converged on the Italian city of Genoa in the days before July 21, to protest against a meeting of the presidents and prime ministers of the seven richest countries in the world plus Russia.

Many people took part in a week-long counter-conference, which tried to identify alternatives to capitalist globalisation. On Thursday there was a massive peaceful demonstration for free movement and against the increasingly restrictive migration laws in the Western/Northern world. Friday saw a large variety of attempts to enter the restricted "red zone" where the G8-meeting was taking place, including peaceful blockades, a pink/silver march, violent attacks on police lines, and a massive Tute Bianchi march. On Saturday, a 200,000 strong demonstration concluded the actions.

While the extent of the protests was unprecedented in Europe, so was the brutality of the police response. Police attacked demonstrations with gas canisters, smoke rockets etc. on a regular basis, including the peaceful, legal march on Saturday and the Tute Bianchi demo on Friday, which triggered massive clashes between protesters and police. Police brutality culminated in the killing of Carlo Guliani and the violent raid on the Diaz school, which served as a sleeping place for protesters. All around the world, hundreds of demonstrations and actions took place in aftermath of Genoa, to protest against the police violence.

For detailed accounts of the events go to our Summer of Resistance section and to Indymedia Italy.

GOTHENBURG ANTI-EU PROTESTS Jun 14-16 2001


At the three-day anti-EU protests in Gothenburg, Sweden, police have fired with live ammunition at protesters and have seriously injured three people. The incident happened at a streetparty on Friday night, when a small group of police attacked the party but were pushed back by the people. Despite mainstream media claims of police self-defence, the video evidence shows that at least some of the shots were targeted shots aimed at particular protesters from a distance, in a situation where there was no immediate threat to police officers.

More than 20,000 people had converged on Gothenburg to protest against the EU summit and to discuss related issues, such as militarisation and increasing repression against refugees. While on the first day actions focused on the presence of US president George W. Bush, the second day saw widespread attempts to reach the conference centre and to disrupt the meeting. On Saturday, 25,000 people joined a mass demonstration "For Another Europe".

Swedish police escalated the situation from the first day, when they attacked the protesters' legal meeting and sleeping place. Throughout the weekend there were heavy clashes between protesters and police, but also peaceful marches and cheerful streetparties.

[ Indymedia Sweden | Summer of Resistance | Photo of shot protester ]


Current global stories
Forward: Global stories August-December 2001
Back: Global stories March-May 2001

>Uprising in Ecuador Feb 6 2001


In the past few days Ecuador has seen massive uprisings from its native population against International Monetary Fund inspired policies which have degenerated into violent repression. There seems to be a beginning of dialogue from the government but the situation is far from clear. President Gustavo Noboa was to meet with Indian protesters for negotiations on Tuesday - four days after he had ruled out such a meeting and declared a state of emergency to rein in massive protests. The police and army surrounded approximately 13,000 Indian men, women, children and elders and over the past eight days sporadically fired thousands of rounds of bullets and tear gas at them. To date (as an IMC reporter was told by telephone two nights ago) over 30 Indians have been killed and over 600 wounded.

[ Full report | More background ]

BOLIVIA RISING Sep 24 2000


For more than a week Bolivia has been convulsed by waves of protests by peasants, coca growers, public school teachers and others. One key form of protest has been the blocking of major highways, effectively cutting off regions one from the other, and Bolivia from neighboring countries. At least two people were killed and over 10 wounded today in confrontation between Bolivian military and protesters near the community of Parotani, about 350 km from La Paz, Bolivia's capital, when government troops, under civilian cover, fired tear gas and live ammunition on protesters.

[ Article on imc-prague ]

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On January 1 1994, the Zapatista Army for National Liberation (EZLN) took over several towns in the southernmost Mexican state of Chiapas - timed to coincide with the implementation of the NAFTA 'freetrade' agreement.

Since then, they have been demanding basic human rights and social justice for the indigenous and rural communities of the area. Autonomous communities have meanwhile been set up: which have organised education and health care; collectivized the land; and implemented a grassroots approach to direct democracy decision-making. Outside Chiapas, the Zapatistas are also known for their radical rejection of neoliberal capitalism, as well as for moving away from the traditional strategies of many past guerilla movements in Latin America.