Israeli soldier killed in Lebanon
Ali Mounif Ashmar, a 20-year-old suicide bomber, killed an
Israeli army captain and wounded seven soldiers in southern
Lebanon when he blew himself up March 20. The Hezbollah
guerrilla charged into an army convoy inside an Israeli-
occupied enclave as part of stepped up attacks on the Zionist
occupation force.
"There are many brothers in the resistance who are yearning and competing to join the party's human bomb battalion," declared Sheik Hassan Nasrallah at a news conference in Beirut. Nasrallah, a leader of Hezbollah, said the guerrilla war against the Israeli military would not end until Tel Aviv pulls its troops from the region it seized in 1985. "The only solution is the elimination of the occupation," he stated. "As long as the occupation persists, we'll continue the resistance."
Cops assault Kurds in Germany
Some 1,000 Kurds were attacked by German police while
participating in a March 9 demonstration in Bonn to mark
International Women's Day. The cops tried to stop marchers
from carrying banners of the Workers Party of Kurdistan, which
is banned in Germany. On March 16, German cops assaulted Kurds
again, trying to prevent a demonstration in Dortmund where
more than 2,000 people had gathered. Another 1,500 protesters
occupied a four-lane highway on the border with Belgium.
German foreign minister Klaus Kinkel hurled invective at the demonstrations, saying they "were tantamount to a declaration of war." He asserted that organizers of the actions should be "deported immediately." Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced that a bill has been prepared to allow the deportation of any immigrant convicted of allegedly disturbing the peace during a major event like a mass demonstration.
Uproar over British beef
Officials in several European countries including France,
Germany, and Belgium, banned the importation of British beef
citing possible links between the beef and 10 recent cases of
young people who died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a fatal
degenerative brain disease. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(mad cow disease) - another fatal brain disease - was
discovered to be infecting British cattle in 1985. British
health secretary Stephen Dorrell admitted that one of the
options being considered to stem the crisis was to destroy the
country's entire herd of 11 million cattle at an estimated
cost of $23-$31 billion.
Nora Greenhalgh, the mother of 38-year-old Jean Wake, who died in September, told the New York Times, "I was always convinced that Jean's illness was caused by eating infected beef and had a lot to do with her time working in a factory putting the fillings into pies."
General strike set in Bolivia
The Bolivian Workers Confederation (COB) called for a
national strike March 18 to protest the sale of the state oil
company and demand a wage increase. Cops attacked and injured
striking workers and students March 21 as demonstrators set up
roadblocks in downtown La Paz, the Bolivian capital.
Bolivian troops were mobilized to occupy refineries and natural gas facilities March 22, anticipating a strike by oil workers that could shut down a natural gas pipeline to Argentina. Other union officials announced they would join the strike, which has already closed public schools and universities, on March 25.
50,000 peasants protest government in Paraguay
Some 50,000 peasants paralyzed Asunción, the capital of
Paraguay, March 15, in a protest against the agrarian policies
of president Juan Carlos Wasmosy. Up to 10,000 cops were
mobilized against the peasants' march, while several armed
platoons of the army and air force guarded the government
palace 200 meters away.
In 1995, Wasmosy vetoed a law expropriating 400,000 hectares of farm land belonging to landowner Roberto Antebi, which covers nearly half the Concepción state, north of Asunción. After fruitless negotiations between the peasant leaders and the president, the peasants warned that if Wasmosy and the parliament do not provide a quick alternative to their request to subsidize the price of cotton and expropriate land for landless families, they will march again in the capital city.
Peltier denied parole
The U.S. Parole Commission announced March 21 that it
rejected Native American activist Leonard Peltier's request
for parole. Peltier is serving two life sentences after being
framed up for the deaths of two FBI agents who participated in
an assault on a South Dakota reservation in 1975.
Last December, a parole hearing examiner recommended that the commission deny parole for Peltier. Larry Schilling, one of Peltier's lawyers in New York, stated, "We're very disappointed. It's a great injustice and we will continue a maximum effort to obtain his release."
The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee issued a call for protest messages to be communicated to the U.S. Parole Commission, Tel: (301) 492-5952, Fax: (301) 492-6694, and for copies to be forwarded to the LPDC at P.O. Box 583, Lawrence, KS 66044.
Attacks on immigrant children
The U.S. House of Representatives voted March 20 in favor of
a measure that allows states to deny public education to
children of undocumented immigrants. The proposal was adopted
257 to 163, and is one piece of an immigration bill under
debate in Congress. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that
children of undocumented immigrants were entitled to a public
education from kindergarten through the 12th grade.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich attacked the entitlement as "totally unfair" and a financial burden on states. "Come to America for opportunity. Do not come to live off law-abiding taxpayers," he declared.
Ruling guts affirmative action
The United States Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued a
decision March 18 that overturns the affirmative action
programs at the University of Texas School of Law. The
University of Texas temporarily suspended admission to all its
undergraduate and graduate programs at its 15 campuses March
19.
The three-judge panel sent the case back to Federal District Judge Sam Sparks in Austin, who earlier ruled that the constitutional rights of the four white students who brought the original lawsuit were violated. Sparks had awarded the students just $1 each, but will now reconsider damages for the students, who charged they were denied admission to the law school because of the affirmative action policy.
- MAURICE WILLIAMS