Washington's leases for 12 military installations were due to expire in May, and many Okinawan landowners were refusing to renew them. Tens of thousands of residents in Okinawa have joined in demonstrations demanding the removal of the bases. This sentiment mushroomed in 1995 when U.S. servicemen raped a Japanese schoolgirl. More than 31,000 U.S. troops - two-thirds of the total number in Japan - are concentrated in Okinawa.
Kurdish activist is detained
Turkish authorities detained human rights activist and
pop singer Sanar Yurdatapan April 16 when he returned to
Istanbul from Germany. Onur Yurdatapan, the arrested man's
brother, said that the cops ransacked the activist's office
and gave no reason for the arrest. Some 12 million Kurds
constitute an oppressed nationality in Turkey. They are
denied education and broadcasting in their own language, and
often face harassment such as forced evacuations. More than
23,000 have died in the 13-year struggle for Kurdish self-
determination.
Crisis deepens for Israeli regime
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu squeaked
through the threat of being formally charged with corruption
April 20. The scandal reflected the tensions that are
deepening among the Israeli rulers over their inability to
put down Palestinian resistance to the expansion of Zionist
settlements. The furor erupted over Netanyahu's appointment
of Roni Bar-On as attorney general. In January, television
reports stated that the lawyer was offered the position in
order to minimize the corruption charges prosecutors are
seeking for rightist politician Aryeh Deri, whose backing
the prime minister needed in parliament. Opposition groups
and parties immediately began calling for the prime
minister's resignation. Netanyahu called the rising scandal
and threat of prosecution "an attempt to overthrow the
government because of a basic disagreement," and declared
that those accusing him "refuse to accept our vigorous
objection to a Palestinian state."
Prosecutors investigating the charges stated they did not have enough evidence to indict Netanyahu, but said they had "tangible suspicion" he was involved in wrongdoing.
Miners protest job cuts in Chile
Workers hurled rocks and coins at Jaime Toha, chairman of
the state-owned coal mine in Lota, Chile, after he announced
April 16 a decision to shut it down. The miners had occupied
the work site for two months last year and marched in
Santiago, the Chilean capital, to protest the job cuts. Some
1,100 miners, most of them well below retirement age, are
scheduled to be discharged immediately and a fight is
brewing over severance pay. Unemployment in the area is 13
percent, twice the national average.
More strikes break out in France
Airline pilots from TAT and Air Liberte, two companies in
France owned by British Airways, went on strike April 10
against increased working hours and downsizing that are part
of a plan to merge the airlines. Also on strike in France
are newspaper workers opposing government moves to cut the
press subsidies. Their action forced Liberation and Le Monde
to put out their April 17 issues on e-mail only.
Hospital workers, now more than a month into their strike, have rendered most university hospitals sub- functional. Labor struggles have been popping in France as Prime Minister Alain Juppé has accelerated Paris' austerity drive to qualify for a favorable spot in European Union.
Natives protest across Canada
Native activists set up roadblocks and held
demonstrations across Canada April 17 in a national day of
protest. In Ottawa, demonstrators backed up traffic for
nearly two miles with a checkpoint in front of the prime
minister's residence during morning rush hour. "We have no
economic future in this country, and our people are getting
fed up with it," said Ovide Mercredi, a leader of the
national assembly of Indian chiefs. Some of the actions in
other provinces blocked the Trans-Canada Highway. Protesters
say the government there has done nothing to remedy the
plight of the 810,000 Natives living in Canada.
Meanwhile, in New York state four days earlier, 200 protesters blocked a road near the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in protest of government attempts to collect sales tax on gasoline and cigarettes sold by Indian businesses to non-Natives.
Gov't okays public notice of man convicted of sex crime
Texas attorney general Dan Morales declared April 12 that
a judge's order forcing an ex-inmate convicted of a sex
offense to post a sign on his property stating that fact is
within the bounds of law. Morales said the mandatory sign
posting is okay when it is related to rehabilitation and
protection of the public. He did not say who determines what
is "rehabilitating."
In this particular case Ricky Lee Shields, on probation for sex abuse charges, broke a rule of probation and was given the choice of returning to jail or posting a sign that says, "A person on probation for a child sex offense lives here." According to Shield's lawyer, the violated probationary rule was picking up his daughter from daycare after his wife's car broke down.
FBI lab gave fake results, lied
Michael Bromwich, the U.S. Justice Department inspector
general, issued a report April 15 charging Federal Bureau of
Investigation agents with lying against defendants,
preparing sloppy reports, and poor documentation of test
results, and said he found serious defects in the FBI's
crime laboratory.
The report, based on an 18-month investigation, said the testimony of an examiner in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993, "exceeded his expertise, was unscientific and speculative, was based on improper nonscientific grounds." Bromwich said the agent repeated many of the same errors in the 1995 Oklahoma City explosion. The agent, David Williams, admitted he "overstated" his conclusions on the Oklahoma City case. "This throws the World Trade Center case wide open," said Robert Precht, a lawyer who represented one of the defendants in that case. According to the report, evidence was tainted in dozens of other cases as well.
Same-sex marriage under attack
Legislators in Hawaii are proposing an amendment to the
state constitution that would overturn a previous state
court ruling that declared it unconstitutional to ban same-
sex marriage. In 1993, the state supreme court ruled that
banning gay marriage was discriminatory and therefore
unconstitutional. Citing the Hawaii ruling, U.S. president
William Clinton signed the so-called Defense of Marriage Act
last September, denying federal recognition of same-sex
marriages and enabling states to reject these unions and
deny benefits associated with legally married couples. Since
then 18 states have passed laws denying recognition to same-
sex marriages.
- BRIAN TAYLOR AND MAURICE WILLIAMS
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