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Posts Tagged ‘protests’

Some areas in China under martial law after protests

May 30, 2011 Comments off

cnn

More of this story was published last week.

Anti-riot police line up as a crowd gathers in northeastern China/southern Mongolia on Monday, May 23.

Anti-riot police line up as a crowd gathers in northeastern China/southern Mongolia on Monday, May 23.

(CNN) — In an apparent response to days of protests, Chinese authorities have declared martial law in parts of the northeast’s inner Mongolia autonomous region, according to Amnesty International.

The region has long been the scene of ethnic tension between Mongolians, who have lived in the area for centuries, and the Han people, who arrived in larger numbers after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Han people are the majority ethnic group in China.

In the report released Friday, Amnesty International detailed protests in and around the city of Xilinhot.

CNN contacted officials in the affected areas, but they declined to comment.

According to the human rights organization, 2,000 Mongolian students took to the streets Wednesday in Xilinhot, in a show of solidarity with an ethnic Read more…

People disappear in Georgia after violent dispersal of opposition rally

May 27, 2011 Comments off

rt.com

Tbilisi: An injured man walks in front of the ranks of the Georgian riot police officers dispersing opposition rally (AFP Photo /Zura Tvauri)

Tbilisi: An injured man walks in front of the ranks of the Georgian riot police officers dispersing opposition rally (AFP Photo /Zura Tvauri)

Opposition leaders urge Georgian government to investigate the disappearances of protesters in Tbilisi after the brutal police crackdown of the peaceful rally. They also vow to stage more protests to free the country from the ‘tyrant’ Saakashvili.

Giya Tsagareishvili, a member of the Georgian parliament from the opposition party of Free Democrats, named ten protesters that vanished after the protests in Tbilisi on May 26. None of them could be found among those detained by the police or in any of the hospitals in the capital city of Tbilisi.

“All of this was happening in Tbilisi, in the capital of the country that, according to Mikhail Saakashvili, came this close to the doorstep of the European Union.” Tsagareishvili said. “Well let me remind Mr. Saakashvili that there, in Paris, London, Berlin and Tallinn, protests are not drowned in blood and people do not disappear.”

Giya Tsagareishvili is not the only opposition leader that draws attention to the strange occurrences which took Read more…

Escalating violence may push Yemen towards civil war, warns UN human rights office

May 27, 2011 Comments off

un.org

Yemenis protesting against the government in Sana’a

27 May 2011 – The United Nations human rights office today voiced alarm at the escalating violence in Yemen, which it said may push the country to the brink of civil war, and called on the Government to stop its deadly crackdown.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it is trying to confirm reports it has received of dozens of civilian casualties, including women and children, in the fighting over the past few days, as well as reports of shelling by Government troops in residential areas.

The death toll has reportedly approached 100 since fighting began Monday after Yemen’s President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, refused for a third time to sign a deal to transfer power amid the pro-democracy protests that began earlier this year.

“The dangerous escalation of violence in Yemen over the past few days is very Read more…

UN Experts to Consider Proposal Condemning Syria

May 26, 2011 Comments off

voanews

An image grab taken from a video posted on YouTube, May 20, 2011, shows a Syrian soldier pointing his rifle and firing at anti-regime protesters during a demonstration in Hama, north of Damascus

Photo: AFP An image taken from a video posted on YouTube, May 20, 2011, shows a Syrian soldier pointing his rifle and firing at anti-regime protesters during a demonstration in Hama, north of Damascus

U.N. Security Council experts are expected to discuss a draft resolution on Thursday that would condemn Syria for its crackdown on peaceful protesters.

The draft – put forth by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal – appeals for an immediate end to violence in Syria. It also condemns what the European sponsors call  a “systematic violation of human rights” that includes killings, arbitrary detentions, disappearances and the torture of peaceful demonstrators.

Rights groups estimate that roughly 1,000 people have died since the government started a crackdown to stop protests against Read more…

Thousands of Mongolians Protest to Against China For Equal Rights

May 26, 2011 2 comments

thetibetpost

Huveet_Shar_10Dharamshala: Wednesday May 25, more than 2000 ethnic Mongolian protesters marched to the Chinese government building in the North-western city of Xilinhot, in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR).The protest was spurred by the killing of a Mongolian herder by a Chinese truck-driver following disputes over access to pastures which are being used as road-ways for trucks transporting coal for the growing coal-industry in Inner Mongolia.Three herders and one student were reportedly beaten severely during the protests and their whereabouts are presently unknown.

The protesters, who were mainly students, demanded they be treated equal to the growing number of ethnic Han Chinese who now make up the majority of the population in the region, with only an estimated 17 percent of Inner Mongolia’s 23 million people being of Mongolian ethnicity.

Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) write on their website that after the Chinese government announced IMAR to be the “energy base of China”, hundreds of coal mines have been opened in the Southern Mongolian grasslands, and as a result more than 250.000 Mongolian nomads have been displaced. Read more…

Categories: China, Mongolia Tags: , ,

Governments Order YouTube To Censor Protest Videos

May 20, 2011 Comments off

prisonplanet

Forget copyright infringement, You Tube is now complying with removal orders from governments to stop populist rage going viral

Government Orders You Tube To Censor Protest Videos 200511top

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, May 20, 2011

In a frightening example of how the state is tightening its grip around the free Internet, it has emerged that You Tube is complying with thousands of requests from governments to censor and remove videos that show protests and other examples of citizens simply asserting their rights, while also deleting search terms by government mandate.

The latest example is You Tube’s compliance with a request from the British government to censor footage of the British Constitution Group’s Lawful Rebellion protest, during which they attempted to civilly arrest Judge Michael Peake at Birkenhead county court.

Peake was ruling on a case involving Roger Hayes, former member of UKIP, who has refused to pay council tax, both as a protest against the government’s treasonous activities in Read more…

Signals Spain may seek bailout spelling disaster for eurozone

May 16, 2011 Comments off

rt.com

Violent protests against austerity cuts have broken out in Spain, as the country struggles to deal with record-high unemployment signaling that Madrid could possibly be next in line for an EU bailout.

Across the border, Portugal’s crumbling economy is desperate for a €78 billion rescue package. Read more…

Israeli forces open fire at Palestinian protesters

May 16, 2011 Comments off

bbc

Israeli soldiers confront protesters near the northern Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights
Israel’s army said it faced a “serious” incursion at Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights, where a number of people were reported killed and injured.

Jon Donnison in Ramallah: “Palestinians are feeling emboldened and inspired by the uprisings elsewhere [in the Middle East]”

Israeli forces have fired on groups of protesters at borders with the Palestinian territories, Syria and Lebanon.

Reports say that at least 12 people have died and dozens more have been injured.

In one incident, thousands of Palestinian supporters from Syria entered the Golan Heights, Israel says.

Palestinians are marking the Nakba or Catastrophe, their term for the founding of the Israeli state in 1948.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes in fighting after its creation.

Responding in a televised address to Sunday’s violence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped “calm and quiet will quickly return, but let nobody be mistaken, we are determined to defend our borders and sovereignty”.

Impetus

Clashes have been taking place at four separate borders or crossing points – at Erez in Gaza, near Ramallah in the West Bank, on the Golan Read more…

Greece ‘runs out of tear gas’ during violent protests

May 12, 2011 2 comments

telegraph

 Greece has issued an international appeal for more tear gas after supplies ran low because police fired so much of it during a week of violent protests across the country.

Demonstrators, in a cloud of tear gas, hurl rocks at police during clashes in central Athens Photo: AP

Officers released 4,600 capsules of tear gas during confrontations in Athens and nearly a dozen other cities since riots erupted over the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old schoolboy by a policeman last Saturday.

The greek government is urgently seeking fresh supplies of tear gas from Israel and Germany, the police said.

Yesterday, a report disputed claims by lawyers for the policeman accused of killing Alexandros Grigoropoulos that the bullet hit the boy after ricocheting.

The Kathimerini newspaper said that the results of forensic tests on the bullet indicated that it had been fired directly at the teenager.

Athens Bar Association condemned the policeman’s lawyer, Alexis Kougias, for “desecrating the dead” by claiming that the Read more…

Yemen crisis: Protesters keep up pressure on Saleh

April 25, 2011 Comments off

bbc

Thousands of anti-government protesters are standing their ground in the capital of Yemen, despite a deal that would see the president step down.

Protesters occupying a permanent camp in Sanaa say they don’t trust President Ali Abdullah Saleh to keep his promise to leave office.

Mr Saleh agreed on Saturday to hand over power to his deputy within 30 days in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Protesters say he must go immediately.

There were fresh demonstrations in Sanaa and in other parts of the country on Sunday.

Witnesses say the protesters in Sanaa are ringed by army units that defected to join and protect them. Uniformed soldiers were seen chanting alongside the demonstrators and flashing victory signs.

At least 130 people have died during two months of protests inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world.

Despite the protesters concerns, a coalition of seven opposition parties has generally accepted the deal, brokered by the Gulf Read more…