S. Africa National Party rightists seek amnesty for crimes
The rightist Nationalist Party in South Africa is challenging that country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission to review a blanket amnesty given to 37 leaders of the African National Congress (ANC). The commission has the task of exposing human rights violations committed during apartheid rule. "We are not against amnesty for the 37 ANC leaders," claimed National Party head Martinus van Schalkwyk. "What we are saying is we are against a special amnesty only for ANC leaders."

The National Party, which governed apartheid South Africa for more than four decades, is trying to avoid prosecution of its leaders for the routine torture and brutality committed by its security forces.

Rightists to form gov't in India
Indian president K.R. Narayanan announced March 15 that Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leader the rightist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will be sworn in as prime minister to lead a coalition government. The Hindu nationalist party said it will publish a joint "national agenda" with its coalition partners, which will include pursuing India's "nuclear option." The BJP will exclude from the agenda its campaign promise to build a Hindu temple on the site of a 16th-century Mosque in Ayodhya that was demolished by Hindu rightists in 1992.

Just 21 months ago Vajpayee was forced to resign after 13 days as prime minister after failing to win support from any other party. The BJP said if their coalition allies remain loyal they can count on 264 votes in a confidence vote - eight short of an assured majority in the lower house of Parliament. Since the national elections in 1996, India's ruling class has failed to put together a stable government in the world's second most populous country.

Immigrant raids in Singapore
Singapore cops raided coffee shops, construction sites and other places March 12 arresting almost 200 "suspected immigrants." The police arrested workers from China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Bangladesh according to the Associated Press. "The raids are part of stepped-up efforts to wipe out the illegal immigrant problem in Singapore," read a cop statement. Ninety undocumented immigrants were scooped up during a 24-hour raid March 6.

Seoul will not free political prisoners who keep convictions
When South Korean president Kim Dae Jung approved a plan March 13 that would clear police and personal records of 5.5 million people, the capitalist media produced much hoopla over the releasing 2,300 inmates - some of whom were locked up for their political ideas. Woo Yong Gak, a 68-year-old man, who is possibly the world's longest-held political prisoner, is not being released because he has kept his views more than 39 years. Woo was first jailed for leading a reconnoitering mission into south Korea, and has remained imprisoned for refusing to denounce communist ideas.

Only prisoners that renounce their solidarity or support for north Korea were released, with the exception of a few inmates who are older than 70. After being released, political prisoners are still punished and discriminated against by the so-called National Security Law and other regulations, which include blacklisting Koreans who so much as listen to radio broadcasts from north Korea.

Denmark: Social Democrats win
The coalition government of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Denmark's Social Democratic prime minister, won the March 11 elections by a 90-to-89 vote in the Danish parliament, despite widespread projections in the big- business press that they might lose. The Conservative party lost 10 seats in the elections. The election took place as 500,000 industrial workers have threatened to strike March 18 if negotiations for new collective wage agreements break down. The bosses want to place a 4 percent cap on annual pay increases.

2,000 protest rightists in France
Some 2,000 people from civil rights groups and other opponents of ultrarightist Jean-Marie Le Pen demonstrated March 12 in Paris to counter a rally that the National Front leader planned later that day to coincide with regional government elections. Protesters marched with a banner that read, "Against national preference, priority for social justice." Le Pen uses antigovernment demagogy to win support, tapping into the growing discontent with the high unemployment and economic disparity in France.

U.S. judge attacks bilingual ed
The California Board of Education rescinded a decades-old policy March 13 that gave non-English- speaking students the right to learn in their native language. Sacramento superior court judge Ronald Robie ruled against the state's bilingual education law, saying it expired in 1987. While conceding that native language instruction may be required by some students, he said the Board of Education was powerless to mandate districts to offer such programs. In California only 30 percent of the 1.4 million students learning English have bilingual classes, which are now put at risk by the court decision. In June the anti- immigrant Proposition 227 - which seeks to eliminate bilingual education - will be on the California ballot. Access to bilingual instruction was won through a series of civil rights battles in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Brutal Chicago cops get fired
Two white cops in Chicago, who beat an 18-year-old Black youth and then tried to cover it up, were found guilty by the city Police Board there March 12 and then fired. Last September cops severely beat Jeremiah Mearday. That same day opponents of police brutality organized a city-wide committee and later held two protests drawing hundreds of people. Following the police beating, the cops then charged Mearday, asserting he started a fight with them, but public outcry pressured the city to suspend the cops. Police Board president Demetrius Carney was forced to describe the testimonies of Matthew Thiel and James Comito Jr. as "simply unbelievable." Paul Geiger, the cops' attorney, said he is seeking an appeal.

Cabbies free inmates in Mexico
Some 500 taxicab drivers in the National Lombardista Union marched onto Ocosingo jail - some 40 miles east of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico - demanding the withdrawal of Mexican government troops and the release of some of the prisoners. The protesters were allowed into the jail to speak with inmates. Once inside, they overpowered the guards and 46 prisoners grabbed machetes and escaped. The union has called for release of political prisoners and withdrawal of the Mexican army from the state of Chiapas.

-BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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