Sao Tomé protest raps price hike
Electrical shortages and a government-ordered 140 percent hike in gasoline prices provoked demonstrations of hundreds in Sao Tomé and Príncipe, an island nation 150 miles off the west African coast, May 21-22. Government troops and riot police attacked protesters, arresting 12. The Associated Press reports that one man who was driving through the capital where the action was taking place was shot point-blank in the stomach by a soldier during an argument. Prime Minister Raul Neto declared that he would use force, if needed, to stop the protests.

French Guianans say: Political prisoners out of jail now!
Hundreds of people in French Guiana held an April 24 rally against the jailing of nine government dissidents, who included opposition party members, labor activists, and others. That day, protesters held an all-night vigil in front of the cop headquarters, blocking the main street in the capital city, Cayenne. The nine people arrested were charged with attempting to burn down the home of Guiana's chief public prosecutor in actions last November. A week earlier, police fired tear gas on crowds of demonstrators. Nine cops were injured in the latest confrontations. Paris has flown in 150 police officers help put down protests.

Dominican troops attack protest
Students at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo demonstrated April 24 and burned U.S. flags. The protests in the Dominican Republic capital commemorated a 1965 revolt and subsequent invasion of the country by 23,000 U.S. troops. At least eight demonstrators were injured in this year's action after five Dominican navy soldiers opened fire on the them. The students fought back, hurling rocks at the troops and setting vehicles ablaze, including several telephone trucks. Minutes later, some 100 riot cops came onto the scene, launching tear gas grenades and firing live ammunition.

U.S. base in Caribbean protested
On April 10, three-quarters of the 1,000 people living in Petit Martinique protested U.S. plans to construct a Coast Guard base on the island, located right next to Grenada. A day earlier, when U.S. land surveyors entered the region, they were met with opposition. Protesters erected a barricade that took police 30 minutes to break through, built a fence around the area to be surveyed, and demonstrated against the presence of agents of U.S. imperialism. It took 100 baton-wielding, armed riot cops and soldiers to guard the surveyors, who finished their work April 10. According to one reporter present, some soldiers were pointing their automatic assault rifles at the protesters. Petit Martinique prime minister Keith Mitchell assured BBC Radio that Washington was only there to build the base. A squadron of 100 U.S. Marines will be the constructors. The cop force on that island has been beefed up from eight to 13 officers.

Brutality of Chile army exposed
The killing of Pedro Soto, a 19-year-old draftee, has brought to light the inhumane treatment meted out to military conscripts in Chile. Soto disappeared last December. His corpse, found three months later, had been beaten, knifed, shot, and dismembered according to medical reports. This incident and others have prompted youth, the parents of the abused conscripts, and others to organize demonstrations all over the country demanding an end to obligatory military service. There have been 536 cases of abuse in the military officially reported in this past year alone. Some of the protests are directed at Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who headed a brutal military dictatorship from 1973 to 1990, and remains the commander of the Chilean armed forces.

While all 18-year-olds must register for the draft, most of those forced to serve come from poor families; wealthier families get their children college study exemptions. In Soto's case, army officials claimed Soto was slain by a group of homosexual recruits who feared he would reveal their sexual orientation. "We do not believe this to be an isolated incident, but that it reveals serious deficiencies in the system," said Patricio Walker, president of the Christian Democratic Youth.

Lebanese fighters bomb Israeli military
Guerrillas fighting the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon launched Katyusha missiles into areas controlled by Tel Aviv April 25, aiming at two military installations in Lebanon. Israeli army commander Amiram Levine said his troops suffered a couple of injuries. Israeli forces responded with artillery fire. The latest exchange took place the day after two Lebanese civilians were injured by gunfire from an Israeli helicopter. Tel Aviv claims the civilians were hit by a Lebanese guerrilla shell. For a dozen years, Hezbollah has been fighting to rid Lebanon of the Zionist occupation.

Palestinian bulldozers go toe-to-toe with Tel Aviv's
Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in the West Bank town of Kfar Kedumim April 25, protesting the latest land grab by Zionist settlers. Israeli soldiers fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at the demonstrators, who pelted them with stones. In the Gaza Strip a day earlier, bulldozers from the settler regime were confronted by Palestinian bulldozers. The Zionists were trying to level a 1.5 acre stretch of beach front, supposedly to construct a military observation tower. The protesters say the land belongs to Palestinian farmers and was seized to expand another Israeli settlement. Israeli troops arrested the two Palestinian bulldozer drivers and fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd. The next day, 150 Palestinians returned to organize a sit-in and erected five tents. The Zionist troops brought out a tank, but did not resume their leveling.

As these protests continued, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution April 25 demanding an immediate halt to construction of Zionist settlements. Only Washington, Tel Aviv, and the delegate from Micronesia voted against the resolution. Adding to the woes of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, some Israeli reporters have accused him of stirring up violent attacks on journalists who have given him unfavorable coverage.

Bombing trial undemocratic
The trial of Timothy McVeigh, accused of the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, began April 24. The first day of the trial was taken up with describing the bombing in gruesome detail. Meanwhile, it has come out that police handled McVeigh's clothing and other items in a way that allowed for possible contamination. Much of the government's case rests on forensic evidence from an FBI laboratory recently cited for issuing sloppy reports and lying against defendants.

In a violation of usual democratic safeguards, the trial judge has ruled that families of those killed or injured in the bombing can witness the trial proceedings, without disqualifying themselves from testifying in the sentencing portion of the trial, if McVeigh is found guilty.

-BRIAN TAYLOR  
 
 
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