The government responded by deploying 20,000 cops, who fired live ammunition and launched tear gas at the crowds, killing at least 80 people. Police seized video tapes and film taken by journalists showing gangs of cops beating young Indonesian protesters. The Associated Press said the "riot" began with confrontations between supporters of the Golkar party - now in power -and those supporting the opposition.
Tel Aviv proposes housing freeze
After several weeks of sustained protests from
Palestinians, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
proposed a temporary freeze on the disputed 6,500-unit
Zionist housing project on captured Palestinian land in
Jerusalem, Channel 1 television in Jerusalem reported May
23. Netanyahu made the proposal at a meeting with an
Egyptian government official in preparation for a May 27
summit with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Egyptian
foreign minister Amr Moussa said that an unconditional six-
month suspension of Israeli settlements was necessary to end
the stalemate on the "peace talks" that hit an impasse when
the Zionist regime cleared the ground for the apartments in
March.
Meanwhile, Palestinian youth hurled stones May 22 at Israeli soldiers who fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up their funeral protest of a Palestinian beaten to death in a hospital by Israeli cops. Palestinian doctors in Bethlehem found three broken ribs and a broken hand from an autopsy on the man, who the cops claim broke his metal handcuffs and went on a rampage in the hospital.
Storm devastates Bangladesh
On May 19 a hurricane decimated the homes of those
living on the southern coast of Bangladesh. A 125-mile-an-
hour cyclone leveled 400,000 mud and thatch roofed houses,
leaving close to a million people homeless. Up to 500 people
are believed dead, with 1,500 missing.
In 1991, some 138,000 people were killed in Bangladesh's worst cyclone disaster. Just before the recent storm hit, nearly 500,000 people were moved from their to concrete cyclone shelters built after the 1991 catastrophe.
Turkish troops kill 1,300 Kurds
Some 20,000 Turkish troops in tanks and U.S.-made
fighter jets penetrated Iraq's northern border in mid-May,
slaughtering 1,300 Kurdish independence fighters in the
first week of fighting. Kurdish rebels report taking down 64
Turkish troops, while Ankara admits to only 14 casualties.
UN secretary general Kofi Annan called for international
pressure on Ankara to withdraw its soldiers. Kurds in
northern Iraq and southern Turkey have been fighting for
self-determination for decades. Various imperialist powers
have tried to influence factions in this struggle to justify
intervention in the region.
Dominican sugar workers strike
Demanding a 60 percent wage increase and access to free
medical care, 30,000 sugar cane workers in the Dominican
Republic laid down their machetes May 22. The one-day strike
halted operation at eight state-run sugar plantations and at
four other repair facilities run by the State Sugar Council.
Santo Domingo had promised workers health benefits before,
but never provided them. The Sugar Council owes $21.5
million to the Dominican Social Security Institute, which
manages most public health clinics there.
According to a recent United Nations report, diseases ranging from AIDS to uterine cancer are extremely high on the sugar plantations, due to poor sanitation and working conditions. Most of the sugar cane workers earn only $180 a month on the Caribbean isle and can seldom afford medical treatment.
Ottawa halts U.S. fishing talks
After years of unresolved disputes, the Canadian
government suspended negotiations with Washington May 20 on
dividing the salmon catch in the Pacific Northwest. Ottawa
also says it will enforce restrictions on U.S. vessels
traveling through its waters. The Fisheries Department in
Canada warns that vessels violating the restrictions "can be
inspected, required to go to a Canadian port, or face
arrest." Ottawa charged that U.S. officials did not come to
the talks ready to compromise. U.S. State Department
spokesman Nicholas Burns denied the charge.
Clinton gov't attacks immigrant rights
The Clinton administration is moving to revoke the
citizenship of 4,946 naturalized immigrants. The Immigration
and Naturalization Service (INS) audited the 1 million
people who became U.S. citizens between September 1995 and
September 1996. Assistant Attorney General Stephen Colgate
said based on that audit, he will try to revoke citizenship
from those who supposedly gave inaccurate or falsified
evidence. The laws say some convicted felons can be denied
citizenship, but that lying under oath is not grounds for
deportation.
Of the nearly 5,000 people affected, only 296 were convicted of felonies. The rest allegedly failed to indicate felony arrests or convictions on misdemeanor charges. The INS has recently streamlined "denaturalization" procedures. Instead of being presented before a judge, an INS official now decides these cases. Only at that point can an immigrant request an appeal before a federal court.
Texas holds execution record
The state of Texas is on a course toward breaking the
record for executions in one year. The current largest
number of state-sanctioned murder is 19. Seven people will
be executed in May alone. Texas prison officials boast that
their high rate of capital punishment was made possible
through a ruling of the Court of Criminal Appeals, who
enforced a new state law, making appeals quicker. There are
453 men and women prisoners on Texas death row.
Pollution made into a commodity
The New York state government recently began issuing
"pollution credits," which give legal permission to emit a
certain volume of pollution. The credits are now bought and
sold on the capitalist market. Companies that have good
emissions records are given credits. Companies that are not
willing to bring their release of byproducts and toxins in
line with legal emission standards can simply buy the
difference. Credits are generally sold for between $150,00
and $450,000 in upstate New York, while they can be priced
at ten times that amount in New York City. Now the
government is offering companies free pollution credits to
set up shop in the state.
- BRIAN TAYLOR
In Brief Photobox
Hundreds of teachers from two main teachers unions, along with students took to the streets in mid-May to reject Puerto Rican Dept. of Education's "Project for Developing a Bilingual Citizen," an attempt to impose the teaching of math, science, and other subjects in English. "I will refuse" attempts to impose English classes, said math teacher Digna Irizarry. "I'm Puerto Rican, I speak Spanish."