Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

People fighting back in Tonga - IMC activists reports and photos

AIMC | 01.12.2006 03:08 | Anti-militarism | Indymedia | Social Struggles | World

Riots broke out in Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa after a pro-democracy demonstration on Thursday, 16th November, in the Kingdom. About 3000 people marched onto parliament with banners calling for immediate reform, others attacked public figures, while another labeled the current structure a "deadly virus". In the afternoon, after parliament was cancelled, protesters started smashing government buildings and set fire to businesses owned by the Prime Minister and the King in the city centre and turned cars over. Windows were smashed in the Prime Minister's Office, Parliament House, the Magistrates Court,the Public Service Commission Office, the Ministry of Finance and three vehicles overturned and government cars smashed in government parking lots. One company targeted was power company Shoreline, owned by the King. The aristocratic class control the economic and political aspects of life against which the people have been resisting for years. The protests and riots are part of the struggle against the feudal system which is oppressing the Tongan people for years.












The city centre has since been closed off by military checkpoints and soldiers from New Zealand and Australia were flown in to "restore law and order". Hundreds of people have been arrested and many of them have been abused in prison. Two IMC activists spent one week in Tonga to interview people and report on the movement for change. Here are links to their reports and photos posted on Aotearoa IMC.

Abuse in Tongan prisons - IMC activist almost arrested | If a boat ends up on a reef… Tonga Report 3 | Soldiers and cops wherever you go | Revolutionary not Evolutionary – indymedia activists report from Tonga

Earlier Reports: People fighting back in Tonga - NZ Govt assisting the monarchy | Tonga: Biggest Protest Ever! (May 05) | Tonga - schools smashed - 200 arrested! (Aug 05) | A Revolution in the Pacific? (Aug 05)

AIMC

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Questions

01.12.2006 14:43

Why is the grffiti written in english?

Co


Answer

03.12.2006 12:30

Most Tongans speak English as a second language. I don't know why the authors chose English however. We saw only a couple of could-be slogans (ie. not the obvious tagging) in Tongan that could have been political ('could have', because we do not understand Tongan).

smush


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech