More Rohingya survivors tell of Thai abuse

ugh. I haven’t been covering this story, so for background and details, I recommend checking New Mandala. In the meantime, this is a very upsetting video.

more about “More Rohingya survivors tell of Thai …“, posted with vodpod

Dey Krahom Razed to the Ground. State Violence in the service of predatory capital.

[photo by John Vink, taken from Ka-Set page]

The violent eviction of the residents of Dey Krahom in the early hours of Chinese New Year has been well-covered in a number of online fora and publications. It is horrific: the bravery of the residents in their attempts to resist the theft of their land and homes, the destruction of their livelihoods, and their safety was inspiring. The use of impoverished former evictees as workers ordered to violently evict others was tragic.

Dey Krahom was a deeply impoverished area – many called it a slum, though some residents objected to the term, preferring to call the area their home – located in an increasingly valuable part of Phnom Penh. Like previous evictees, the residents were violently intimidated over the course of years, threatened, and told they would be ‘compensated’ with kit homes in an area far outside of Phnom Penh that still lacks running water, sanitation, nearby markets, or anything else that makes life capable of being lived with dignity.

All for the new ‘owner’ of the land, 7NG, a large construction company. The company (or the police?) hired impoverished evictees from previous evictions to do much of the dirtiest and most dangerous work of demolishing the homes of the new evictees.

The entire situation reminds me of a well-known proverb:

ភ្នង​ដេញ​ខ្មោច
ខ្មែរ​ដេញ​ភ្នង
ចិន​ដែញ​ខ្មែរ

The Pnong chase away the ghosts
The Khmer chase away the Pnong, and
The Chinese chase away the Khmer.

In this proverb, the “Pnong” stand in for every indigenous group living in land newly attractive to the lowland Khmer, who chase them off of the land after the Pnong are supposed to have chased away the spirits of the forests. But the chasing continues, for a stronger group then chases the Khmer off the same land. [I'd love to know more about this proverb - anyone have any ideas?]

You can read more about the evictions ay Dey Krahom in the following links. [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 - See also Flickr page here managed by Jinjadey krahom, ] But in the meantime, read this excerpt from the article in Ka-Set (English, below the fold).

Greek police run out of tear gas as rioting continues for a seventh day – Times Online

Thousands of Greek protesters clashed with riot police yet again in Athens today, as police started to run out of tear gas after battling rioters day and night for a whole week.

Police sources said their riot squads had fired 4,600 tear gas canisters this week as rioters torched hundreds of banks and shops and occupied their campuses, where police after forbidden by law from entering.

The police have asked Israel and Germany to send them emergency supplies, while protesters claimed that they had been using old stock from the 1980s in a desperate bid to contain the rioting. They claimed that corroded chemicals were causing some demonstrators to collapse and need medical attention.

“We found tear gas canister dated from 1981,” said one demonstrator, calling himself only GK. “The old chemicals make us sick, people have fainted and have trouble breathing,” he said.

With the running street battles showing no sign of letting up, a march by students, anarchists and youths in masks ran into immediate trouble as rioters hurled rocks, fruit and chairs from street cafes at police trying to contain the latest rally.

Police responded by firing stun grenades and snatching rock-throwers who approached too close, at one point knocking down a Greek journalist with their plastic shields. As the masses approached parliament and challenged the police ranks, officers used remaining supplies of tear gas to drive them from the square before the assembly building.

via Greek police run out of tear gas as rioting continues for a seventh day – Times Online.

Anarchists took control of Downtown St. Paul, police admit at subMedia

Via the Stimulator. For more information on that ‘poor, unarmored’ police officer shown being ‘harassed’ dragging an unresisting protester along the ground, see here, with multiple videos of the citizens’ unarrest.

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RNC Fallout

Independent media has begun releasing longer, more in-depth accounts of what went down here in September, when they – along with tens of thousands of peaceful citizens – suddenly found themselves in a repressive police state that resembled fabled Minnesota Nice not at all. Independent media was specifically targeted, along with folks from the RNC Welcoming Committee.

Sometime today, the good folks from Twin Cities Indymedia and the Glass Bead Collective will release a hi-definition downloadable (and burnable to dvd) version of their documentary, “Terrorizing Dissent.” There will be public showings in various locations [check the web site]. In the meantime, here’s the trailer.

Tom Hayden, one of the Chicago 8 forty years ago, has been a good egg, making the parallels explicit. He was on Macalester’s campus last week, talking up this point, the fact that police adhere to a ’scare the sh*t out of the public’ script in these cases, and that

As long as the pubic is dumb and the politicians cowardly, they won’t have to send out agents. But I don’t see how this pulling the wool over the eyes of people can go on forever.

Stop Police Violence

OCTOBER 22 NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY,

REPRESSION AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF A GENERATION

PROTEST AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22

4:30 p.m.
KELLOGG PARK, KELLOGG & WABASHA, ST. PAUL

From mass police brutality during the RNC to the
everyday brutality against people of color and
poor people in the streets and in the jails,

something has got to be done to end the reign of terror.

Come out and demand REAL solutions:

• We need a real civilian review authority that holds cops accountable and isn’t just a rubber stamp agency!
• End beatings and abuse in the jails and prosecute brutal jailers!
• No more bogus charges against police brutality victims. Prosecute brutal cops!
• Drop ALL charges against RNC arrestees.  Dissent is not a crime!
• Fire cops who lie in police reports or in court!
• We must let the authorities know that we will no longer be silent in the face of police brutality!

R.I.P., Posse Comitatus, killed by ‘Sea Smurfs’

George Washington himself warned the American populace against the danger of a standing army. Another famous US general, Eisenhower, took advantage of his farewell speech to warn, in tones justifiably strident, about the rise of the military industrial complex.

Ground Noise And Static at subMedia

1 half hour long documentary from our comrades the Stimulator and Pepper Spray Media, on the recent police repression at the Saint Paul Republican National Convention. Too long to embed via Vodpod, apparently, can be downloaded directly via this link. It’s about 363 MB.

via Ground Noise And Static at subMedia.

And hey – wanna support these folks? Buy a copy of the disc for 15 clams.

Or watch it below, here:

The Denver Police Union – Overtly Fascist

My sources say this was printed by the Police Union (that part is uncontested, the union is selling them unapologetically for $10 apiece) before the DNC.

Planned attacks on peaceful civilians by state forces, who brag about it in advance. Fascism, anyone?

photo via bb

Amnesty International condemns the use of force against RNC protesters “Disproportionate,” Charges Amnesty International

USA: Use of Force Against RNC Protesters “Disproportionate,” Charges Amnesty International.

Yep. I’ve been at a number of these things, including Seattle in 1999, where I was a graduate student who was gassed out of my apartment. While I’ve seen evidence of worse individual actions by police (and I have not seen all of the evidence from this action yet, and it gets worse every day), I have never seen such planned, provoked, and intentional violence from the police.