In the lead up to the G8 Summit in Japan from July 7th through 9th, Japanese authorities have arrested domestic activists and have detained numerous foreign independent media journalists and anti-G8 protesters. At least six independent journalists and ten academics have been detained by Japanese immigration officials in the past weeks, including Andrej Grubacic, professor of sociology at the University of San Francisco.

Police arrested eight protesters on June 29, as 1,500 people marched against the G8 Summit in Tokyo's fashionable fashionable Shibuya and Shinjuku districts. Earlier this month, workers in Kamagasaki clashed with police and security in the face of violent repression and brutality against at least one worker.

Japan's security budget for the G8 Summit is at least 30 billion yen ($283 million), topping the 113 million euros ($186 million) Germany spent to host the summit of the world's most powerful "democratic" nations.

The G8 Summit will be held in the resort town of Toyako on the northern island of Hokkaido. Japanese activists opposing the summit call it an "arbitrary meeting of governments dominating the global financial market with the World Trade Organization and Free Trade Agreeements". They object to the fact that developing nations are forced to accept agreements like NAFTA in exchange for ODA (Official Developmental Assistance).

At the local level, they are concerned that in recent years Japanese social welfare has been reduced and the working poor have suffered. Agribusiness, a favorite topic of G8 discussion, runs counter to Japanese tradition of respect for individual farmers. At the same time, the US is urging Japan to re-arm despite having a constitution imposed by US Occupation Forces that calls for Japan to forever remain a peaceful nation.

The US led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are also targets of the G8 protests, and caricatures of President Bush with the theme "Wanted for Murder" were seen in internet video of the demonstrations.

On June 30th, the Counter-G8 International Forum opened in Hokkaido and will conclude on July 1st. Media G8way reports that anti-G8 activists from Japan and across the world came together to strategize on how to resist the G8 and construct alternatives to a system in which "financial crises, food crises and ecological destruction are inherent."

Meanwhile, organizers continue to prepare protests and demonstrations against the summit. Daily six hour marches are planned from one of the main camps, Toyoura camp, into town, and a major demonstration estimated at 10,000 people is scheduled for July 5 in Sapporo.

G8 Protesters Take to Sapporo Streets in Anticipation of Toyako Summit | Japanese Police Deputize Household Pets/Soda Machines | G8 Dispatches: Contested Spaces in Tokyo | Resistance Against G8: Arrests and Detentions in Japan | Japan Detains SF Academic Ahead of G8 | Resistance action against police in Kamagasaki | No G8 | G8 Action Network

On June 17th, 2008, a U.S. military judge dismissed charges against another Marine connected to the massacre of twenty-four unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. Of the eight Marines originally charged in the case, only one still faces prosecution. Criminal charges have been dismissed against six of the Marines and a seventh Marine was acquitted.

The Haditha Massacre occurred on the morning of November 19th 2005, after a roadside bomb struck a Humvee carrying US troops in the western Iraqi town of Haditha. The bomb killed one marine and injured two others. The marines responded by busting down doors of neighboring houses. 24 men, women and children were killed when marines burst into their houses after the blast and shot them dead in their nightclothes.

Democracy Now: Haditha Massacre Victims' Kin Outraged as U.S. Marines Go Free | Sixth Marine Cleared in Haditha Killing | Camp Pendleton Baby Killer Marines Set Free | Charges dropped against third Marine | Wikipedia: Haditha killings

Previous Indybay Coverage Of Haditha Massacre

Video cameras have become a crucial way for Palestinians to document the daily harassment inflicted on them by Israeli settlers. Reports by Palestinians of physical attacks and damage to property usually go unattended by the Israeli military and police.

In one recent example, a Palestinian family living on the southern hills of Al-Halil, was attacked by four settlers armed with baseball bats while farming their land. The video provided evidence against two settlers, who were arrested by the Israeli police. An Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said that the police are investigating whether the attack was instigated by Palestinian women for dressing inappropriately.

"Shooting Back" is a new project by B'tselem, a human right organization based in Israel. Through the projects, more then a hundred video cameras have been given to Palestinians who live in close proximity to settlements. The cameras help to document the daily harassments by settlers, sometimes under the protection of the Israeli Army.

According to Yesh Din (Hebrew for "there is law"), an organization dedicated to opposing the continuing violation of Palestinian human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, more then ninety percent of complaints filed by Palestinians against settlers are closed without indictments being processed.

Cameras Vs Settlers in West Bank | Palestinian woman films masked men attacking W. Bank farmers | Settlers "Brutalize" Palestinians | Israeli settler kills Palestinian civilian near Ramallah

Under the guise of the "War on Drugs" the Mexican Army has increased its presence around the Zapatistas autonomous municipalities in La Garrucha — the last place Subcomandante Marcos was seen. On June 4, a convoy of 200 army, state and local police tried to enter La Garrucha under the pretext of “looking for marijuana plants,” but were turned away by Zapatista men, women and children armed only with machetes and stones.

While the violence surrounding drug cartels in Mexico causes great alarm in Mexico and abroad, the targeting of the Zapatista communities in the "War on Drugs" is equally alarming.

Mary Anne Tenuto of the Chiapas Support Committee recently wrote, "President Bush has proposed a billion dollars in military assistance to Mexico for its war on drugs. A bill known as the Merida Initiative, more commonly labeled 'Plan Mexico,' after the failed Plan Colombia, is currently winding a twisted path through the two houses of Congress as H.R. 6028. Each house has approved a different version of the bill and lots of political influences are at play: defense contractors; Mexican politicians; and human rights groups to name a few. Much of the money would go to U.S. defense contractors to buy those helicopters that swoop down on protesting communities, like in Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero, Atenco and many others."

The Chiapas Support Committee will host a discussion on the recent militarization in Mexico. They will also present a film about military repression of indigenous communities in the Mexican state of Guerrero at 7:30 p.m. on June 26 at the Unitarian Universalists Church in Berkeley (1924 Cedar St.). Their story is the story of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Atenco and organized indigenous communities throughout Mexico.

Mexican Army Incursions Threaten Zapatista Jungle Region | Plan Mexico threatens peaceful Mexican communities | Event Announcement: Chiapas Support Committee | Previous Coverage

On May 30th, tens of thousands of Iraqis protested in a number of cities against the proposed agreement between the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Bush administration that would codify a long-term US military occupation.

Muqtada al-Sadr is demanding that any US-Iraqi security agreement be submitted to a national referendum.

Sources close to the office of Ayatollah Ali Sistani have said that he has called on the Iraqi prime minister to deal cautiously with the agreement and called on him to organize a national referendum on it. Iranian TV has claimed that Sistani has said he will not allow a US-Iraq agreement "as long as he is alive." There are also rumors that he has approved attacks on US forces in Iraq. Officially he has said little but has stated on his website that Iraqis are forbidden to provide food for US occupiers.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council in Iraq, the largest bloc in parliament and cornerstone of the al-Maliki government, issued a statement through his office. He spoke of the existence of: "a national consensus on rejecting many of the points put forward by the American side in the agreement, because they detract from national sovereignty." He said that such a consensus existed in the National Security Council, which is composed of the leaders of the major political blocs in the parliament.

Thousands of Iraqis protest agreement for indefinite US occupation | Thousands of Sadrists Protest Security Pact With US | Haeri Fatwa Against Security Agreement | Sadr demands Referendum on SOFA | Sistani Opposes SOFA | Sistani Forbids Feeding Americans | Sistani Aide: Jihad Fatwa May Come | Will Sistani Declare Jihad on US?

May 14th was the first anniversary of the incarceration of Indian human rights and public health activist Dr. Binayak Sen. People gathered in front of the Consulate General of India in San Francisco to protest his continued imprisonment by the Indian government. Protesters presented a petition demanding, "Free Dr. Binayak Sen," to the Indian Consul General.

Photos

Dr. Binayak was a gold medallist from the prestigious Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore. He moved to southern Chhattisgarh in 1981. There, in the iron ore and dolomite mines surrounding the Bhilai Steel Plant, the pioneering trade union leader, Shankar Guha Niyogi, was building not only a labour union, Chhattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh (CMSS), but also a social movement among 30,000 mostly-Adivasi mine workers. With the Bhilai Steel Plant refusing to provide health care to mine workers, Niyogi recognized that it was left to the union to fill the need and expand its base of support. Binayak Sen joined him, along with Dr. Ashish Kundu and Dr. Saibal Jana, in a makeshift clinic operating in a shed carved out of the side of the union office in Dalli Rajhara in Durg District.

On May 14th 2007, police arrested Dr. Binayak Sen, charging him with sedition, criminal conspiracy, making war against the country, and knowingly conveying the "proceeds of terrorism." He was charged under draconian state and central laws -- the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) of 2006 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) of 1967. Since then three courts have denied him bail, including the Supreme Court on December 10th 2007. Additional Solicitor General of India, Gopal Subramaniam, alleged that Dr. Sen was a key figure in a Naxalite "network of terrorism."

The charges against Dr. Sen were a pretext for silencing him because of his and PUCL's investigations revealing rampant human rights violations and atrocities by police and government-supported vigilantes. Salwa Judum is a vigilante movement sponsored and armed by the government in southern Chhattisgarh since June 2005. It was created in an attempt to counter the Maoist insurgency that has taken over the entire Bastar-Dantewada region because of either the government's utter neglect of social services or callous land-grabs by private corporations. The militarization of the region and the presence of the Salwa Judum have triggered a near civil war that has cleansed more than 600 villages, displacing more than one lakh (100,000) people from their homes.

Free Binayak Sen Campaign | Free Binayak Sen | Wikipedia: Dr. Binayak Sen

Hector Antonio Ventura, one of 14 people arrested during an anti-water privatization protest last year in the town of Suchitoto, El Salvador, was assassinated in his home on May 3. The assailants apparently stabbed him to death, while another man was attacked but survived. Organizations such as the legal group FESPAD have called for a full investigation into the death of the 19-year old Ventura, while expressing concern that Salvadoran authorities will not address the likely political motivation for the murder.

Read more

More news from El Salvador: From U.S. to El Salvador, ‘gangs’ and the ‘global war on terror’ | Another SOA?: A Police Academy in El Salvador Worries Critics | El Salvador: FMLN Mayor Assassinated in Usulután | Funes Still Ahead in Salvadoran Race

After months of increasing political anxiety in Lebanon following the failure to elect a president, tensions rose last week, in what appears to have been a calculated challenge to Hezbollah on the part of the US and Lebanon's ruling coalition.

On May 8th, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah held a press conference in Beirut and condemned a decision by the Lebanese cabinet to outlaw Hezbollah's telecommunication network and dismiss the head of Airport security for his alleged ties to the party. Nasrallah said their private communication network was critical to their success during the July 2006 war with Israel. Hezbollah-led opposition forces quickly overpowered pro-government militias and took over large parts of the capital city of Beirut before handing over control to the Lebanese army. The fighting shifted to the north and east of the country over the weekend and fresh clashes were reported in Beirut on May 12th.

Between May 7th and May 11th, armed clashes between Hezbollah-led opposition groups and US-backed pro-government forces left at least 81 dead and many more wounded. "This is very much similar to what is happening in Sudan, in Palestine, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and Somalia, [where] the United States is basically instigating and funding civil wars," says professor As`ad Abu Khalil.

Monday May 12th Peace Vigil At U.C. Merced

Democracy Now! | Yet Another Foreign Policy Opportunity Screwed Up by the Bush Administration | Hezbollah makes show of strength against Siniora government | Clashes resume in north Lebanon | Day 5: Lebanese dare to hope worst is over | Hizballah, in opposition, takes charge | Lebanon in crisis: an interview with editor Samah Idriss | Lebanon army moves to end crisis | Both Sides Take Tough Line, Leave Room To Maneuver | Analysts say Lebanon's crisis in perilous new phase | Uncertainty in Beirut | Lebanon takes 2 Steps toward Civil War; Beirut in Chaos | Hizbullah Rejects Hariri Initiative | Is the Bush Administration Stirring the Pot? | Lebanon on brink of civil war | At least seven lives lost to clashes in Beirut, Bekaa, North | Hezbollah 'seizes west Beirut' | Violence in Lebanon escalates | Airport shut, at least 10 injured as mobs do battle in capital | Violence in Beirut | Beirut paralysed by labour strike

On May 1st, the US assassinated Aden Hashi Eyrow, one of senior leaders of Somalia’s Islamist movement, in an air strike that killed at least 10 other people.

Somalia has a United Nations-backed transitional government that had little local legitimacy and controlled only one town at the time of the Ethiopian invasion. The transitional government has lost almost all support by Somalis following its continued support for the Ethiopian occupation, even after several well documented atrocities. Amnesty International has accused Ethiopian soldiers of killing 21 people, including an imam and several Islamic scholars, at a Mogadishu mosque and said seven of the victims had their throats slit. According to eye-witnesses, the eleven killed inside the mosque were unarmed civilians taking no active part in hostilities. Amnesty International has documented a pattern of these ‘throat-slitting’ executions, which often occur in security sweeps after attacks on Ethiopian forces in Somalia. Amnesty International also expressed concern that approximately 41 children, estimated to range from 9 to 18 years of age, were taken by the Ethiopian military from the Al Hidya mosque where they were attending religious classes.

Asha Haji Ilmi, head of Save Somali Women and Children, a Mogadishu-based NGO, reports that the situation had never been this bad in 17 years of civil war, and that the transitional government is making the humanitarian situation worse by waging an economic war in Mogadishu. “The destruction and looting of Bakara market and the printing of fake currency has led to hyperinflation,” seriously affecting the population’s ability to cope, she said.

The upsurge in violence comes as the country is on the brink of a severe drought. The number of people in need of assistance in Somalia has increased to 2.6 million people (35% of the total population), an increase of more than 40% since January 2008. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs-Somalia, warns that “if things do not improve within the coming weeks, and it is not likely, then we will be confronted with the images of 1991-1992,” when hundreds of thousands of Somalis died through drought and violence.

In response to the US assassination of Eyrow, Ahmed Samatar, the Somali born dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College told PBS's News Hour that the death of the Islamic leader will likely increase resistance to Ethiopia: "this is what you can hear from the Somali people around both inside and outside of the country. And that is target assassinations, in the final analysis, might be successful in taking out the individual or the individuals that one is hunting for, but the consequences of that is to make people who are now in the middle and who really are peaceful people and who are not interested in violence to be increasingly pushed to become more militant and, therefore, dare to take violence as an instrument to liberate their country from the invasion of the Ethiopians and this transitional government, which the Ethiopians have imposed on the Somali people."

Thousands of Somalis Protest Deadly U.S. Air Strike | PDF | Thousands riot in Somali capital | Somalis protest against US strike | US confirms Somali missile strike | Somalia Situation Report | Scores dead as Ethiopian troops push further into Mogadishu | 'Wash Post' Backs Invasion and 'Endless' Occupation Over Air Strikes | Anarchy in Somalia

Previous Indybay Coverage Of Somalia

On April 7, two indigenous Triqui women who worked at the community radio station La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (The Voice that Breaks the Silence), in the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala (Mixteca region), were shot and murdered while on their way to Oaxaca City to participate in the State Forum for the Defense of the Rights of the Peoples of Oaxaca. Three other people were injured.

According to the state attorney general, the victims are Teresa Bautista Merino (24 years old) and Felícitas Martínez Sánchez (20 years old). Francisco Vásquez Martínez (30 years old), his wife Cristina Martínez Flores (22 years old), and their son Jaciel Vásquez Martínez (three years old) were also injured in the attack.

According to prelimary reports, the women had left the station, which is part of the Network of Indigenous Community Radio Stations of the Southeast (Red de Radios Comunitarias Indígenas del Sureste), around 1 p.m. They were traveling in a truck on their way to Oaxaca City, but were ambushed on the outskirts of the community of Llano Juarez.

The two community radio activists were supposed to coordinate the working group for Community and Alternative Communication: Community Radio, Video, Press, and Internet, at the State Forum for the Defense of the Rights of the People of Oaxaca, which was to begin on April 9 in the auditorium of the teachers union in Oaxaca. The Center for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS) released a statement denouncing the murders and demanding that the state authorities investigate and punish those responsible for the crime.

The state attorney general said that twenty 7.62 caliber bullet shells were found at the site of the murders, along with other arms including an AK-47. International supporters have been asked to contact their local embassies and consulates and organize demonstrations condemning the paramilitary repression of indigenous women and community media projects.

Read more | Two Community Radio Announcers Killed in Copala, Oaxaca | Deep Dish TV blog

On Wednesday, April 9th, the Olympic Torch came to San Francisco. Thousands of people gathered in an Francisco to either cheer or protest. Supporters of China waved Chinese flags and supporters of Tibet hung "Free Tibet" banners from buildings but few saw the torch as the relay did not go along the announced route and the closing ceremony was cancelled. One torchbearer, Majora Carter, tried to display a Tibetan flag while running with the torch on Van Ness Avenue but the SFPD quickly took the torch from her and pushed her onto the sidewalk.

On Monday April 7th activists from Students for a Free Tibet hung banners from the Golden Gate Bridge; they were later arrested and are now facing felony charges.

CodePink/Global Exchange Brings Positive Olympic Torch | Rallies On The Embarcadero | Big Group Takes Torchless Embarcadero Banner Confrontation | Tanks in the streets | Sanity in SF Torch Route | Compiled breaking news reports | Archive of live mobile streams | Pro-Tibetan demonstrators march, and no torch

April 8th San Francisco Tibet Vigil | Action Alert | Burma Contingent | Scaling the Golden Gate cables for a free Tibet | Photos from the banner drop | Protest on Golden Gate Bridge | SF Welcomes China's Official Secret Police For Lighters On Steroids | Will SF also cede sovereignty to China's police? | Less than a week before the Olympic Torch arrives | Info on Text and Video Updates | Cable Access coverage of the San Francisco Olympic Torch Relay | Twitter the Torch

The Olympics will be taking place between August 8th and August 24th in Beijing, China. Many human rights groups are concerned that China is cracking down on dissidents ahead of the games.

On September 28, 2007, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu urged China to intervene in the crackdown on protests in Myanmar. Tutu said that if China did not take a stance against the military rulers in Myanmar he would "join a campaign to boycott the Beijing Olympics"

The press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders(RWB) has advocated a boycott of the Olympics expressing concerns over violations of free speech and human rights in China. RWB hopes that international pressure and petition can effect the release of prisoners of conscience, and hold China to promises made to the IOC regarding improvements in human rights. RWB journalists interrupted the speech of the China organizing committee chief during the Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Greece March 24. One protester tried to snatch the microphone as another unrolled a black flag showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs.

Activists working to address the ongoing violence in Darfur, Sudan, have called for pressure to be exerted on China because of their financial and diplomatic support for Omar al-Bashir, who is responsible for the Sudanese government's proxy militias.

Pro-Tibetan independence groups, such as Students for a Free Tibet, have initiated a campaign to protest the Olympics. The group plans to protest for Tibetan independence. The Tibetan People's Movement has also demanded representation of Tibet with its own national flag.

On Sunday April 6th, protesters tried to steal the torch as it made a 31-mile trip through London from Wembley Stadium to the O2 Arena in North Greenwich. Several protesters were arrested.
On Monday April 7th, protests in Paris forced an end to the relay in France after protesters repeatedly extinguished the torch.

French snuff Tyranny Torch | UK Indymedia Photos&Video Of London Tibet Protests | Demonstrations in Paris cancel Olympic torch relay | Activists urge torch-bearers to speak out on Tibet oppression | Forget the Olympic Torch: Free Tibet | NYPD caught on tv beating up Tibet protestors in NY | Incendiary Device Left at the Chinese Consulate in SF | HRW: International Olympic Committee Operating in Moral Void

On March 10th 2008, monks from the Drepung monastery in Tibet staged a protest on the anniversary of the 1959 failed rebellion led by the Dalai Lama. Chinese police arrested 60 monks. The next day around 600 monks staged a protest in front of the Lhasa police headquarters demanding the release of the detained monks. Protest across China led to many arrests and possibly hundreds of deaths. The Chinese government has now sealed off Tibet from the outside world preventing journalists from getting into the provence and many essential goods (such as food and medicine) from getting into monasteries.

On April 3rd, China sentenced AIDS activist Hu Jia to 3 1/2 years in prison after he testified to the European Parliament and published a letter urging a focus on human rights as the Summer Olympics approach.

The largest Tibetan uprising since 1959 | Tibet Intifada Day 2 | Tibet Intifada Day 3 | HRW: Restrain Forces From Violently Attacking Protesters in Tibet | Petitition to Boycott Beijing 2008 Olympic Games | Repression in Tibet and China | 1959 Tibetan Insurgency | In Tibet, China dishonours Olympic spirit | Chinese profits will soon make the world forget Tibet | Gruppo EveryOne: Save Tibet, Boycott Beijing 2008 | Yahoo and MSN helping to root out Tibetan rioters | China claims "Intern'l Community on OUR side" | More info on the ethnic cleansing of Tibet | M19 Tibet Protest at the Chinese Consulate in SF | August 8th 2007 SF Protest Against Olympic Torch

Some activists groups are concerned that protests against China are motivated more by US government military and economic interests rather than real concerns about human rights. They point out that the 1959 Tibetan Uprising was sponsored by the CIA and Tibet under the rule of the Dalai Lama was a theocracy .

Party for Socialism and Liberation: Statement Opposing Anti-China Campaign | Oil in Tibet and gold, uranium and more | A Free Tibet: Freedom for whom? | From Brutal Theocracy to Socialist Liberation to Capitalist Nightmare | The Protests in Tibet and the Discontent Below | China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics | What's really going on in Tibet