Army coup takes over Comoros
Military officers took over the Republic of Comoros April
30, ousting President Tadjidine Ben Said Massonde. Army Chief
of Staff Col. Assoumani Azzali stated that the coup was carried
out "to prevent our country from being plunged into chaos." The
country is made up primarily of the islands of Grand Comore,
Moheli, and Anjouan off the coast of Mozambique, and has
700,000 residents. It won independence from France in 1975. On
Mayotte, the fourth island in the chain, Paris engineered a
referendum in favor of continued ties with the colonial power.
It remains an "overseas territorial collectivity" of France
today.
The French government has a long history of intervention in the Comoros through mercenaries and a direct invasion in 1995. Officials on Anjouan declared independence in 1997, with plans to renew ties with Paris. The Comoros government has made several attempts to put down this secession by military force. Coup leaders put officials under house arrest, suspended the constitution, and banned political activity and public gatherings.
Palestinian statehood is on hold
The increasingly bourgeosified leadership of the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) - under pressure from Washington
and other governments - postponed its planned May 4 declaration
of an independent state, ostensibly until some time in June.
Under the 1994 Oslo "peace" agreement signed by the Israeli
government and the PLO, May 4 was the deadline for a decisions
on the final status of Palestinian lands occupied by Tel Aviv.
As the date approached, Israeli prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu threated to annex all disputed territories if the PLO
tried to establish a state. Tel Aviv has backed a number of
strategic land seizures by Zionist settlers in the West Bank
that separate Palestinian villages from one another.
Meanwhile, pressure from Palestinians for their own country is building. On April 27 Palestinians demonstrated outside PLO leader Yassir Arafat's offices calling for statehood. Sáad Saleem, a cab driver, said, "The Americans and the Israelis always find an excuse to deny us our statehood. We've had enough.... If the Israelis want to invade, let them. I'll throw stones at them." One unnamed Palestinian official complained, "We go from one new deadline to the next. We have no firm commitments from the U.S. that it will recognize our state. Each new deadline gives Netanyahu more time to build new settlements."
Transport strike hits Nicaragua
Bus and taxi drivers in Nicaragua organized a nationwide
strike April 29 to protest the high price of diesel fuel. Some
10,000 strikers set up roadblocks throughout the country. In an
attempt to head off the protest, the minister of transportation
announced the day before that the government was willing to
drop "liberalization" plans that would give more control to
transportation companies. Workers went ahead with the strike
anyway.
Cuba makes sugar harvest target
Workers and farmers in Cuba scored a victory by achieving
their 1998-99 goal of harvesting 3.6 million tons of sugar.
This is a larger zafra, or sugar harvest, than the previous
season, which yielded a crop of 3.2 million. Gen. Ulysses
Rosales del Toro, who was appointed sugar minister two years
ago, announced that workers had reduced production costs and
improve efficiency levels during the latest harvest.
Maryland students walk out
"It's not right to have kids going to school in a place with
roaches and mice," said Casaundracq Riley, a ninth grader at
Bladensburg High School. "It's just uncivilized. It's nasty."
Riley was one of more than 300 students who staged a three-hour
walkout April 26 to protest subhuman conditions. The school
administration called the cops on protesters, although no one
was arrested.
Florida gov't okays school vouchers, limits right to choose
Florida's state legislators gave final approval to two
undemocratic laws at the end of April. In one measure doctors
must notify parents of a patient under the age of 18 years 48
hours before an abortion is performed, though consent is not
required. Young women who don't want their parents in their
business have to appeal to a judge for a waiver.
Under the guise of aiding poor children, government officials approved voucher legislation that would supposedly give all students regardless of income or grades "eligibility" to apply for up to $4,000 a year to pay for private or parochial school tuition. Republican governor Jeb Bush has reportedly said he would sign both bills.
Maryland killer cop walks free
A grand jury in Montgomery County, Maryland, ruled not to
bring charges against Sean Thiekle, a cop who claims he
accidentally shot and killed Junious Roberts April 14. Thiekle,
on paid leave during the whole episode, car-chased Roberts on
unfounded suspicions of car theft. The cop says he shot Roberts
by mistake. A doctor hired by Robert's family was "skeptical"
about the cop's story, based on how the bullet entered.
- BRIAN TAYLOR