Greece: New government should address police violence

Numerous allegations point to the use of excessive use of force by Greek police

Πηγή: Amnesty International
June 26 2012

Police in Greece routinely use excessive force including chemical sprays against largely peaceful demonstrators. Despite numerous accounts of people being brutalised during arrest or detention, authorities are refusing to acknowledge the extent of the problem thereby creating a climate of impunity, Amnesty International warned in a new report published today.

“The newly established Greek government has an opportunity to acknowledge the extent of the police violence and take necessary steps to address the frequent failure by police and judicial authorities to conduct prompt impartial and effective investigations. Failure to do this will lead to yet more violations going unpunished” said David Diaz-Jogeix, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia Programme.

The Greek authorities have for far too long brushed off such violations as ‘isolated incidents’.

The new report, Police violence in Greece: Not just “isolated incidents”, documents human rights violations committed by law enforcement officials and the inability or unwillingness of police and judicial authorities to bring those responsible to account.

The severe austerity measures introduced in the wake of the deepening economic crisis in Greece provoked many largely peaceful demonstrations.

Numerous allegations point to the use of excessive use of force, including the use of chemical irritants and stun grenades in a manner that violates international standards.

Demonstrators, especially those beaten or gassed by police often are unable to complain as in the haze of pain they cannot note the identification number of the offending officers displayed, if at all, on the back of helmets.

During arrest and detention demonstrators have been beaten and denied access to a doctor or lawyer.

This treatment is also experienced by people accused of membership of domestic armed groups and members of vulnerable groups, such as migrants and asylum seekers detained for migration purposes; and communities living on the margins of society including many Roma.

“Often officers responsible for criminal conduct remain unpunished and victims cannot receive effective remedy and reparation,” said David Diaz-Jogeix.

“This is happening because of systemic problems in the investigation, prosecution and punishment of human right abuses.”
In addition, the definition of torture in the Greek Penal Code is considerably narrower than in international treaties to which Greece is a party. Amnesty International knows of only a very small number of cases where law enforcement personnel have been charged with torture.

The failure of the Greek authorities to address effectively incidents of violations of human rights by law enforcement officials has contributed to victims loosing confidence in the criminal justice system and becoming reluctant to report such incidents. They have also failed to establish a truly effective and independent police complaints mechanism.

“No one is above the law. Least of all the very people empowered to uphold it,” said David Diaz-Jogeix.

“Unless the Greek authorities make violations by law enforcement officials an absolute priority and address the systemic problems which permit them to happen then impunity will prevail.”

Cases
Manolis Kypreos, a journalist, covering protests against the new austerity measures in Athens’s Syntagma Square told Amnesty International how on 15 June 2011, a commander of a police unit ordered a police officer to throw a stun grenade at him. Shortly before the attack, Kypreos had reportedly identified himself as a journalist. Manolis Kypreos suffered total loss of hearing in both ears which put an end to his career as a journalist. At the end of 2011, the Athens Prosecutor’s Officer of the First Instance Courts filed charges against as yet unidentified police officers for intentionally causing the journalist serious bodily harm.

Riot police beat Yiannis Kafkas, an unemployed psychologist and post-graduate photography student, during an anti-austerity demonstration in Athens on 11 May 2011 causing him near fatal head injuries. According to his lawyer and Yiannis himself, he was hit with one of the fire extinguishers that riot police carry with them. Yiannis Kafkas remained in hospital for 20 days, ten of them in intensive care, after having emergency surgery. In February 2012, the police submitted its findings into the beating of Yiannis Kafkas to an Athens prosecutor. However, the prosecutor had reportedly not yet decided whether charges were to be brought against a known or still unidentified police officer.

Christos Chronopoulos, who was suffering from mental health problems, was arrested for causing a disturbance at a café and taken to a police station in Athens after 11pm on 22 May 2007, and detained there. He was later taken to hospital by ambulance. Doctors at the hospital found that Christos Chronopoulos had sustained a grave head injury, subdural haematoma, swelling of the brain and multiple bruises on his sternum and one wrist. He was operated in the early morning of 23 May 2007 and spent two months in intensive care, several weeks in a coma, three months in a neuro-surgical wing, and another six months at a rehabilitation centre. As a result of his head injury, Christos Chronopoulos suffers from incontinence, post-traumatic amnesia, epilepsy, visual disturbance and significant difficulties in walking. He is no longer able to care for himself and is looked after by his relatives. After investigation, an Athens prosecutor recommended that four police officers be referred to trial for jointly causing Christos Chronopoulos serious bodily harm during the exercise of their duties. However, on 26 January 2011, the Athens Judicial Council of Misdemeanors decided not to charge the four officers on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence of guilt. This decision was appealed by the prosecutor of the Appelate Court. Only to be rejected by the Appelate Judicial Council on procedural grounds. Following an appeal, the Supreme Court refer the case back to the Appelate Judicial Council. In April 2012, the Appelate Council decided to refer the four officers to trial.

Greece: Riot Police Deliberately Attack Journalisits

Πηγή: Reporters Without Borders
By Louisa Gouliamaki (AFP)
April 6 2012

Reporters Without Borders roundly condemns a new wave of deliberate attacks on reporters and photographers in Athens and calls on the security forces to immediately identify those persons within their ranks who were responsible.

“The respite was short,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The riot police, who were criticized after the abuses of last summer and autumn, seem to have recovered their repressive instincts. The deliberate nature of the latest attacks leaves no doubt about this.

“In particular, Marios Lolos, a very well-known media figure, was clearly targeted during a peaceful demonstration while in a group of clearly identified journalists. Did they want to punish him for his union activities? Are they trying to intimidate all the media as Greece’s social revolt continues to grow? This unacceptable behaviour must be fully investigated and the police officers responsible for assaulting journalists must be severely punished.”

Lolos, who works as a photographer for the New China news agency and heads the Union of Greek Photojournalists (EFE), is currently hospitalized as a result of being beaten over the head by a member of the MAT riot police near Syntagma Square in Athens yesterday. He is in a serious condition and has undergone surgery to the skull.

All accounts concur that the situation was calm when Lolos was attacked and the photojournalists, who had come to cover a tribute to the pensioner who took his life the previous day, were not wearing helmets or gas-masks. Makis Synodinos of the newspaper Naftemporikiand Star TV reporter Panagiotis Bousios were also among those injured during the deliberate charge by a MAT unit.

Journalists were also injured during clashes between demonstrators and riot police on the evening of 4 April. Rena Maniou of Antenna TV had to be rushed to hospital in an ambulance after receiving a baton blow to the back of her neck. Dionysis Vythoulkas of To Vima and Giorgos Gerafentis of NET were among the other journalists who were roughed up by the MAT.

Anthee Carassava of Sky News and the Los Angeles Times was attacked by police while covering a military parade on Syntagma Square from the parliament on 25 March. Although she had all the required accreditation and was moving away when told by the police, an officer on duty threatened to remove her by force and tried to grab the phone with which she had recorded his voice.

He was joined by three other police officers, who manhandled Carassava and dragged her into the courtyard of the parliament building. The mistreatment stopped only when a policewoman intervened.

As Carassava left, she tried to identify her assailants. They reacted by taking her to a police station and threatening her. As she tried to established the grounds on which they were holding her in a room in the police station, they tried to intimidate her by threatening to arrest her and “do what we want” with her.

In a report published on 14 September 2011, Reporters Without Borders highlighted the decline in media freedom in Greece and urged the police to respect the right of journalists to cover street demonstrations.

Bahrain Shiites mark revolt anniversary

A line of riot police stand in front of razor wire near a shopping mall and "Cinema Dana" in Manama, Bahrain, about one-half kilometer from the hub of last year's pro-democracy protests on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012, the first anniversary of the uprising in the Gulf kingdom. Bahraini security forces fanned out across the island nation in unprecedented numbers for the anniversary

Πηγή: AP
By REEM KHALIFA and BARBARA SURK
Feb 14 2012

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) -- Bahraini security forces fanned out across the island nation in unprecedented numbers on Tuesday as Shiites marked the one-year anniversary of their uprising against the country's Sunni rulers.

Authorities sent troop reinforcements and armored vehicles to the predominantly Shiite villages around the capital Manama to prevent people from gathering and answering the call of the main opposition movement, Al Wefaq.

Six American members of an activist group were detained during the protests, activists and the government said. Authorities said they had violated the terms of their visa, and that they agreed to leave the country without further legal measures taken against them.

The government meanwhile threatened to take legal action against the organizers of protests on Monday that turned violent. This could herald a new crackdown on Al Wefaq, which until last year was tolerated but which has suffered sporadic prosecutions and detentions after it took the lead in last year's protests.

At least 40 people have been killed during a year of unprecedented political unrest in Bahrain. The island kingdom, the home of the U.S. 5th Fleet, was the Gulf Arab nation hardest hit by upheaval during 2011's Arab Spring protests.

The kingdom's ruling dynasty has promised reforms to end the upheaval, although it refuses to make the far-reaching changes the protesters and Al Wefaq, have demanded. These include ending the monarchy's ability to select the government, set key state policies and appoint most of the parliament members.

Police on Tuesday fired tear gas at protesters in an apparent attempt to pre-empt a repeat of the marches the night before, in which protesters made their largest effort in months to retake the city's central roundabout. Pearl Square had served as the epicenter of weeks of anti-government protests last year, and its reoccupation would be a major boost for the movement.

The government statement said many protesters on Monday departed from a pre-authorized route in Manama, turning the march into a riot after police arrived. It said Al Wefaq was responsible for the violence, because it failed to "control the crowd (and) that jeopardized the safety of the people along a busy main road."

Legal procedures will be taken against the organizers of the march, Tuesday's statement said.

Al Wefaq rejected the claim, and said that the "unfounded accusations" are part of the rulers' efforts to discredit the group.

"They have used excessive force against the people throughout all this time, but people keep coming back to the streets to insist on their demand to have a role in the decisions about their country," said Abdul Jalil Khalil, a former Al Wefaq parliamentarian.

Shiites account for about 70 percent of Bahrain's population of some 525,000 people, but say they have faced decades of discrimination and are blocked from top political and security posts.

"After years of broken promises for change, Bahrain exploded last year," Khalil said. "We are still here and we want serious solution and meaningful reform."

Sunni rulers made token concessions in June ahead of U.S.-supported reconciliation talks between the monarchy and the opposition. A so-called national dialogue began in July, but Al Wefaq delegates pulled out of the talks, saying the government was not willing to discuss political reform.

Since then, no talks between the monarchy and the opposition have taken place, Khalil said. Street battles between security forces and protesters still flare up almost every day in the predominantly Shiite villages around the capital.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday the Bahraini government and the opposition "have a responsibility, both of them, to work together to ensure that the right to peaceful protest is respected by all sides."

Nuland also called on the demonstrators to refrain from violence and urged Bahraini security forces to "use maximum restraint" during peaceful protests. Washington asked the government in Bahrain to work with the opposition and other groups "to establish a process leading to real, meaningful political reform" in the Gulf kingdom.

The U.S.-based Witness Bahrain meanwhile said in a statement that six American members of the activist group were arrested during a peaceful march and held at a Manama police station.

Bahrain's Information Affairs Authority said that six U.S. passport holders have been ordered deported for "applying for tourist visas under false pretenses."

The statement says the six activists arrived in Bahrain in the past week and obtained tourist visas at the airport. "They were participating in illegal demonstrations," the statement says.

It said they were taken to a police station and "agreed to leave the country without further legal procedures" against them.

Another two Americans from the group were deported from Bahrain Sunday for taking part in opposition activities after they had entered the Gulf kingdom on tourist visas. Authorities on Monday tightened entry policies into the kingdom, and now demand prior visa approval for many nations that had been allowed to obtain entry stamps upon arrival, including the U.S. and other Western countries.

Occupy D.C. camp raided by police

 Some demonstrators are refusing to leave Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square, as Park Police begin to enforce no-camping rules.

Πηγή: Washington Post
By Annie Gowen

Feb 4 2012

Four protesters were arrested during a pre-dawn raid on the Occupy D.C. encampment in McPherson Square Saturday, and police began clearing away tents, debris and some dead rodents.

U.S. Park Police on horseback and on foot clad in riot gear swept into the park around 6 a.m. Several square blocks downtown were closed during the raid, which was characterized as “further enforcement” of a no-camping crackdown that began Monday.

Despite the show of force, relations between authorities and protesters remained largely peaceful. When police swept into the camp before sunrise, protesters didn’t resist but shouted “Wake up!” and chanted.

As U.S. Park Police in yellow hazmat suits and masks moved through the tents, they used poles to gingerly pick up used blankets, clothes and assorted debris and drop them into trash bags.

Cleanup crews also uncovered dead rats and mice after removing about a half-dozen wooden pallets that the Occupiers used for sleeping.

Four people were arrested when they refused to leave an area in the center of the park where workers were trying to clean up.

David Schlosser, a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said in a statement that parts of the park were being closed for “nuisance abatement.”

“This is not an eviction,” Schlosser said.

The protesters -- who had been expecting a raid -- felt otherwise.

“We’re being evicted without tear gas,” said Melissa Byrne, a protester from the District. “It’s just not as glamorous” as high-profile closures at Occupy Wall Street and other camps, she said.

Under the rules, protesters are allowed to conduct a 24 -hour vigil in the federal park but not camp out overnight.

After a lengthy negotiation, protesters agreed to remove the “Tent of Dreams” that they had draped on the statue of Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson on Monday. Protesters chanted “Solidarity forever” as the tarp came down and some suggested it be preserved in the Smithsonian as part of the history of the Occupy movement.

After the arrests, a dozen Park Police officers with riot helmets and clipboards began surveying tents to check for bedding and belongings inside. Workers in yellow hazmat suits began stuffing blankets and sleeping bags into trash bags

Protesters grew upset when it appeared Park Police were tearing out tents without bedding, which they considered “vigil tents” that are permitted by the National Park Service

“Why are you taking down a tent with nothing inside of it?” Protester Sara Shaw hollered from atop a park bench, behind the police barricades.

Capt. Phil Beck stopped to try and calm the angry protesters.

“If it’s not in compliance we have to do what is necessary,” he said.

Protesters said they had expected the raid, but some were surprised at the magnitude of the response, which included dozens of officers, fire hoses and a paddy wagon.

“It’s pretty excessive if all they wanted us to do was take down the tarp,” said Ricky Lehner, a protester.

The U.S. Park Service announced a week ago that it would begin enforcing the longtime regulations that prohibit camping in federal parks. Protesters at both McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza were told they’d be arrested if they didn’t remove all sleeping gear and other equipment.

Campers were told they couldn’t sleep at the park, prompting some to go on “sleep strikes.” But while some campers complied with the rules and left the McPherson encampment over the past week, others remained.

Traffic was light early Saturday morning, but much of the vehicle access around McPherson Square was blocked. Pedestrian traffic was being permitted on the east and north sides of the park.

Police arrest about 150 Occupy Oakland protesters

January 28, 2012: Oakland police deploy smoke and tear gas to stop protesters with the Occupy Oakland as they march through the streets of downtown Oakland, Calif.

Πηγή: Foxnews
By AP
Jan 29 2012

OAKLAND, Calif. – Oakland police say they arrested a total of about 150 people Saturday as protesters spent a portion of the day trying to get into a vacant convention center, and later broke into City Hall and tried to occupy a YMCA.

Police spokesman Jeff Thomason says most of the arrests came around 8 p.m. That's when police took about 100 protesters into custody as they marched through the city's downtown, with some entering a YMCA building.

Police say three officers were injured.Authorities were still tabulating the exact number of arrests late Saturday.

The nighttime arrests came after 19 people were taken into custody in Occupy Oakland protests hours earlier.

Police used tear gas and "flash" grenades on the group Saturday afternoon after some demonstrators threw rocks and other objects at them. Police said three officers were hurt, but they released no details.

Police said the group assembled at a downtown plaza Saturday morning, with demonstrators threatening to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center. The group then marched through the streets, disrupting traffic.

The crowd grew as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.

The protesters walked to the vacant convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and "destroying construction equipment" shortly before 3 p.m., police said.

Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects.

Most of the arrests were made when protesters ignored orders to leave and assaulted officers, police said. By 4 p.m., the bulk of the crowd had left the convention center and headed back downtown.

The demonstration comes after Occupy protesters said earlier this week that they planned to move into a vacant building and turn it into a social center and political hub. They also threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

In a statement Friday, Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana said the city would not be "bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity."

Interim police Chief Howard Jordan also warned that officers would arrest those carrying out illegal actions.

Oakland officials said Friday that since the Occupy Oakland encampment was first established in late October, police have arrested about 300 people.

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately.

Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.

In Oakland, the police department received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Among the critics was Mayor Jean Quan, who said she wasn't briefed on the department's plans. Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included "serious concerns" about the department's handling of the Occupy protests.

British Police Announce Terrorism Arrests

Πηγή: New York Times
By RAVI SOMAIYA and ALAN COWELL

Sep. 19 2011

LONDON — The British police said Monday that officers arrested six men and a woman overnight on terrorism-related charges in the central city of Birmingham. The arrests followed a “large, intelligence-led counter-terrorism operation,” the police said.

The men were aged between 25 and 32 and the woman, accused of failing to disclose information, was 22, the West Midlands Police said in a statement.

The men were arrested by unarmed officers in raids in five neighborhoods between 11:0 p.m. Sunday and 1 a.m. Monday, while the woman was detained at 6:30 a.m. Monday. The BBC said the investigation, believed to have drawn in Britain’s MI5 domestic security service, had uncovered links to Islamic militancy.

The men were arrested “on suspicion of preparing or instigating an act of terror,” the statement said, and police were searching their homes and seven other locations in Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city which has an ethnically mixed population. The arrests took place in a range of areas from impoverished inner city neighborhoods to comfortable suburbs.

Marcus Beale, the West Midlands assistant chief constable, declined to elaborate on the nature of the suspected attack. “The operation is in its early stages so we are unable to go into detail at this time about the nature of the suspected offenses,” he said in a statement. “However, I believe it was necessary to take action at this time in order to ensure public safety.”

Britain’s Press Association news agency said the arrests were apparently unrelated to the annual party conference of the Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition, which is under way in Birmingham.

The arrests were the first of their kind reported since April when five men were arrested near the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the north of England under antiterrorism laws. They were released later.

Last December, police officials said they had charged nine of 12 men they had arrested a week earlier in a case that seemed to be a sign that Europe’s concerns over potential terrorist attacks were spreading.

The nine, including five who British news reports said were of Bangladeshi origin, were accused of offenses that included reconnoitering targets, conspiring to cause explosions and testing incendiary material.

News reports at the time of the arrests said that the men were accused of plotting attacks to coincide with the Christmas holidays and had reconnoitered targets like the American Embassy, the London Stock Exchange and religious and political leaders.

Last July, Britain lowered its assessment of the threat posed by international terrorism from severe to substantial, meaning there is a “strong possibility” of an attack.

Into The Black Heart Of Ukrainian Politics

Πηγή: Sabotage Times
By Paul Knott
15 August 2011-16:33

To the outside world Ukrainian politics might apear amusing, but now that the former Prime Minister has been jailed, the spotlight should fall on the guns, gangsters, oil and oligarchs that stain the politics in the former Soviet state...

The jailing this week of the former Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yulia Timoshenko, was the latest chapter in the tumultuous saga that is Ukrainian politics – a tale that is as colourfully entertaining for outsiders as it is painful for the Ukrainian people who have to live through their politicians’ antics.

Timoshenko was imprisoned for contempt of court during a trial on a charge of abuse of power. The charge relates to her previous term as Prime Minister and signature in 2009 of a deal that ended the blockage of gas supplies from Russia to European consumers via Ukraine. In a rare example of unanimity on Ukrainian matters, the US and EU have condemned the case as “selective justice” and Russia has said that the deal broke no Russian or international laws. Many observers suspect that the real motivation behind the case is to disqualify Timoshenko from standing as a candidate in future elections by saddling her with a criminal record.

As Timoshenko has volubly pointed out, her involvement in the deal that ended the gas supply dispute was conducted in the full glare of publicity and does not seem out of step with the post of Prime Minister. The dispute was more a matter of international politics than commerce, involving state-owned companies and debts between the countries concerned.

But although this case may be dubious, this is not to say that any investigation of Timoshenko’s alleged links to corruption or political malpractice would be entirely unwarranted. For example, the details of her initial rapid rise from video kiosk owner to senior gas industry mover and shaker in the early 1990s are still unclear. In part, this seems to have been helped by a friendship with another former Prime Minister, Pavlo Lazarenko. Lazarenko is famous in Ukrainian political folklore for skipping the country to avoid corruption charges and subsequently attempting to buy Eddie Murphy’s house in Los Angeles for cash.

Timoshenko’s next transition from “gas princess” to political queen came via her joint leadership of the 2004 Orange Revolution with Victor Yushchenko. The duo later fell out spectacularly whilst in government as President and Prime Minister but, while it lasted, their political partnership launched a thousand beauty and the beast headlines. Whilst Timoshenko is a contender for the title of Europe’s most glamorous politician, Yushchenko (himself formerly a strong-jawed looker) was hideously disfigured by a mysterious dioxin poisoning during the election campaign that sparked the Orange Revolution.

But, as she has shown by refusing to recognise the court’s authority and bringing her supporters back onto the streets, Yulia is a vicious fighter beneath her fragrant exterior and will not be defeated easily.

He attributed his poisoning to a murder attempt during the soup course at a dinner with the then Head of the Ukrainian Security Service, which he believed was instigated by his Russia-backed political opponents in the camp of the outgoing President Leonid Kuchma. The failure of this attempt to knock Yushchenko out of the campaign meant team Kuchma then had to move on to Plan B by rigging the vote count of the election. Unfortunately for them, large swathes of the Ukrainian people refused to accept the theft of their votes and stayed out on the freezing streets for weeks in the successful protest that became known as the Orange Revolution.

The people’s determination to reject Kuchma’s preferred successor also owed something to the former president’s credibility as a dedicated public servant having already been tarnished by a multitude of corruption scandals and the emergence of tapes secretly recorded in his office. These tapes featured him apparently ordering the murder of an investigate journalist, Georgiy Gongadze, whose headless corpse was found in the woods outside Kiev. An attempt to prosecute this case some years later under the Yushchenko/Timoshenko government foundered when the chief witness, the former Interior Minister and Kuchma’s conversation partner on the tapes, Yuri Kravchenko committed “suicide” by shooting himself several times in the head.

All of which brings us neatly back to Timoshenko on trial, as her alleged present day persecutor, is none other Viktor Yanukovych, the chosen successor of Kuchma who was foiled by the orange revolution. Despite his failure in 2004, Yanukovych managed to sneak back into the presidency in 2010 by defeating Timoshenko in a presidential election where the “orange” electorate was split by competing candidates and demoralised by a government that featured far more infighting than competent administration.

Yanukovych’s victory completed a remarkable comeback for a man dismissed as a joke figure just a few years ago. This unfortunate status was based on Yanukovych being seen as the malleable frontman for some of Ukraine’s shady oligarchs and possessing the demeanour, youthful assault convictions and sparkling oratorical skills of a nightclub bouncer. Although he is now showing more signs, as president, of independent thought than expected from someone previously portrayed as a stooge, his thuggish image endures and his new found initiative shows worrying signs of being focused on reigning in democracy and securing his grip on power. Hence, according to Yanukovych’s critics, the attempt to knock Timoshenko out of political contention by means of a spurious criminal case. But, as she has shown by refusing to recognise the court’s authority and bringing her supporters back onto the streets, Yulia is a vicious fighter beneath her fragrant exterior and will not be defeated easily.

And so the saga continues and Ukraine’s unfortunate people continue to be condemned to live in interesting times.

London wakes up to aftermath of worst riots for years

Πηγή: Reuters

By Michael Holden and Adrian Croft
LONDON | Sun Aug 7, 2011 5:59pm IST

London picked itself up on Sunday from some of the worst violence seen in the British capital for years which politicians and police blamed on criminal thugs but residents attributed to local tensions and anger over rising financial hardship.

Rioters throwing petrol bombs rampaged overnight through an economically deprived district, setting police patrol cars, buildings and a double-decker bus on fire.

Police said 26 officers were injured as rioters bombarded them with missiles and bottles, looted buildings including banks, shops and council offices, and torched three patrol cars near Tottenham police station in north London.

The riots erupted after a street protest over the fatal shooting of a man by armed officers this week turned violent.

Residents said they were forced to flee their homes to escape the trouble as mounted police and riot officers on foot charged the crowd to push rioters back.

As day broke, the Metropolitan Police, which will handle next year's London Olympic Games in what is expected to be Britain's biggest peacetime operation, faced questions about how the trouble had been allowed to escalate.

The disturbance was only finally brought under control on Sunday after hours of sporadic clashes. Buildings were still smouldering, bricks littered the roads and burglar alarms continued to ring out.

At a nearby retail park, electrical stores and mobile phone shops had been ransacked, with boxes for large plasma televisions discarded outside, along with CDs and glass from smashed windows.

"They have taken almost everything," said Saad Kamal, 27, branch manager of retailer JD Sports. "Whatever is left is damaged."


APPEAL FOR CALM

Local member of parliament David Lammy and police chiefs appealed for calm.

"This must stop," Lammy told reporters, saying they did not know if everyone had escaped flats above shops that were gutted by fire. "A community that was already hurting has now had the heart ripped out of it."

The trouble broke out on Saturday night following a peaceful demonstration over the shooting of Mark Duggan, 29, who was killed after an exchange of gunfire with police on Thursday. Duggan's death is now being investigated by the independent police watchdog.

The riots also come amid deepening gloom in Britain, with the economy struggling to grow amid deep public spending cuts and tax rises brought into help eliminate a budget deficit which peaked at more than 10 percent of GDP.

"Tottenham is a deprived area. Unemployment is very, very high ... they are frustrated," said Uzodinma Wigwe, 49, who was made redundant from his job as a cleaner recently.

"We know we have been victimised by this government, we know we are being neglected by the government," said another middle-aged man who declined to give his name. "How can you make one million youths unemployed and expect us to sit down?"

Tottenham has a large number of ethnic minorities and includes areas with the highest unemployment rates in London. It also has a history of racial tension with local young people, especially blacks, resenting police behaviour including the use of stop and search powers.

NOTORIOUS RACE RIOT IN 1985

The disorder was close to where one of Britain's most notorious race riots occurred in 1985, when police officer Keith Blakelock was hacked to death on the deprived Broadwater Farm housing estate during widespread disturbances.

Locals said there had been growing anger recently about police behaviour.

"I've lived in Broadwater Farm for 20 odd years and from day one, police always pre-judge Turks and black people," said a 23-year-old community worker of Turkish origin who would not give his name.

Fingers were also pointed at the police for failing to anticipate the trouble, although Commander Adrian Hanstock said there had been no hint of what was coming. He blamed a "mindless minority" for the trouble.

The London force has been heavily criticised for its handling of recent large protests against austerity measures, while its chief and the top counter-terrorism officer have quit over the handling of the News Corp phone-hacking scandal.

"I'm concerned that what was peaceful protest ... turned into this and it seemed to go on for many hours before we saw the kind of policing that I think is appropriate," Lammy said.

Politicians said that criminals, rather than those with genuine grievances, had taken advantage of the situation.

"The rioting in Tottenham last night was utterly unacceptable," a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said. "There is no justification for the aggression the police and the public faced, or for the damage to property."

The capital also saw riots at the end of last year when protests against government plans to raise tuition fees for university students in the centre of London turned violent with police and government buildings attacked.

During the most serious disturbances last December, rioters targeted the limousine belonging to heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, kicking its doors, cracking a window and reportedly jabbing Camilla with a stick.

Rights Groups Contend Mexican Military Has Heavy Hand in Drug Cases

Tomas Bravo/Reuters

State police officers patrolling in Monterrey in June during a drug search involving hundreds of police and military personnel.

Πηγή: New York Times

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: August 2, 2011

MONTERREY, Mexico — The marines barged in at dawn and grabbed her 27-year-old son, dragging him away with a look of fear frozen on his face, Maria del Socorro Maldonado said. He was rushed out clad only in orange shorts.



René Jasso Maldonado has been missing since a June 28 raid.


“I asked if I could give him some clothes, flip-flops, a shirt, and they just took him,” she said, still in shock as she recounted the June 28 raid at her home near here.

She has not seen him since. The marines, increasingly used as part of a military saturation of the area to fight drug gangs, say they do not have her son, René Jasso Maldonado, while the local police keep telling the family to check with the marines. Where he is, or even who took him, remains a mystery.

Mr. Jasso’s relatives believe he fell under suspicion because he is a taxi driver, many of whom are gang lookouts. But they insist he had no involvement in crime and have filed complaints with every authority they can think of — even sending a letter to the president — as they confront the kind of a bureaucratic black hole that human rights activists and international organizations contend is all too common.

The widespread use of the military to back up the local police, who often lack the capability or willingness to take on drug organizations, has led to the capture or killing of dozens of people suspected of participation in organized crime. But cases like that of Mr. Jasso, with their mix of suspicion, fear and unanswered questions, show the darker side of the strategy, human rights groups say.

Like the police, the military has been accused of acting with impunity, getting rebukes by the United States, international organizations and human rights advocates. Last year, the United States withheld part of its drug enforcement aid out of concerns over police and military abuse, and in April, a United Nations panel urged Mexico to consider withdrawing its use of the military because of complaints about “involuntary disappearances.”

The most recent, and possibly farthest-reaching, effort to bring accountability to the military, however, has come out of Mexico itself: a Mexican Supreme Court decision last month that may help lift the lid on the thousands of complaints against the military about disappearances, torture and other abuse.

The court, concurring with a ruling by an international court, said rights cases against the military belonged in civilian courts, not in military tribunals where wrongdoers are rarely punished.

The decision raises the prospect of more transparent civilian investigations into the cases, said Nik Steinberg, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, which has been tracking military cases. But military leaders declared afterward that they could not operate without some protection from prosecution, and several lawmakers came out to support them.

The ruling stemmed from a 1974 case, pressed for years in national and international courts by the family of Rosendo Radilla Pacheco, an advocate for health and education in a poor area of the southern state of Guerrero, who disappeared after being stopped at a military checkpoint. At the time, Mexico and other Latin American countries were taking a hard line on perceived leftist agitators.

Typically, civilian authorities defer to the military, a powerful institution with the trust and a mandate from President Felipe Calderón to take on the cartels while the police and other law enforcement institutions are built up.

Up to 45,000 troops have been sent to several states to assist, and sometimes take over for, civilian forces — the most boots on the ground in highly populated areas since the Mexican Revolution, said David Shirk, principal investigator for the Justice in Mexico project at the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute.

“The Mexican military has experienced a dramatic and sustained mission creep from the 1940s to the present,” Mr. Shirk said. “Its role has shifted from eradicating drug crops in remote rural areas to its current urban deployments to restore order and reclaim lost spaces in Mexico’s largest cities.”

But as complaints of human rights abuses rise, Mexico has grappled with how, or even whether, to police the military.

The National Human Rights Commission said it has logged more than 5,000 complaints of abuse at the hands of the military, chiefly the army. In addition, it has said, more than 5,300 people have been missing since Mr. Calderón began his offensive against organized crime in 2006.

Under international pressure to curb the use of torture and arbitrary detentions, Mr. Calderón proposed to Congress late last year that allegations of rape, kidnapping and torture against the military be heard in civilian courts. Murder was left off the list, to the dismay of human rights advocates, and the bill has not advanced.


The State Department last year withheld part its counternarcotics military aid over human rights concerns. The money, $26 million under the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative, still has not been delivered, though the court’s decision on July 12 could help persuade lawmakers to release it, State Department officials said.

But several analysts questioned whether the civilian justice system was prepared to take on such cases.

“Mexico’s civilian courts have proved woefully ineffective,” Mr. Shirk said. “If military human rights violators find the same degree of impunity we see for other criminal actors, then their victims will have little justice and this decision will have little real meaning.”

Military leaders have long expressed skepticism over the complaints, arguing that most are unfounded or the work of cartels manipulating human rights and international organizations with false accusations to tarnish their name.

Just last week, the secretary of the navy, Adm. Mariano Francisco Saynez, said as much at a graduation ceremony for cadets.

“By using the banner of human rights, they try to damage the image of our institutions with the malevolent goal of obstructing their participation in the fight against them and having an open field for their evil doing,” Admiral Saynez said.

Still, he added, the marines “do not tolerate or protect those who by mistake or lack of professionalism violate human rights.” Both the navy and the army say they now incorporate human rights awareness into their training.

The use of the military against the drug organizations remains highly popular in Mexico, though a number of cases here in Monterrey and surrounding Nuevo Leon State have raised alarms. Several people who the authorities later acknowledged were innocent victims have been wounded or killed at checkpoints or in military operations, in some cases with soldiers accused of manipulating crime scenes to cover their tracks.

But among the more worrisome cases, human rights advocates said, are the disappearance of people, typically young men, last seen in the custody of or near military units. In Tamaulipas State, which borders Nuevo Leon, Amnesty International in June said witnesses reported four men being picked up by marines and not heard from again, with the marines denying any involvement.

“Whether they were suspects or taken by mistake is often hard to know because nobody claims to have answers,” said Sister Consuelo Morales Elizondo, director of Citizens in Support of Human Rights in Monterrey. Confusing matters further, cartel hitmen often disguise themselves as police or soldiers, using fake equipment and sometimes authentic gear stolen or procured from allies in the agencies. That has allowed the authorities to dismiss many disappearances as the work of “clones.”

The marines told Mr. Jasso’s family that it had not been operating in the area and suggested it might have been a gang in military disguise.

But his brother, Oziel, doubted that. He works as a toll taker on a federal highway and said he sees military convoys all the time, readily recognizing their insignia and manner.

One officer during the raid kept accusing him of being a “hawk,” slang for a cartel lookout, before deciding he was not involved and moving on to find his brother.

“If it was a cartel, I would not be sitting here talking to you,” he said. “They would have wiped out the witnesses.”

A few days after the raid, René Jasso Maldonado’s close friend and fellow taxi driver, Jesus Llano Muñoz, 22, was detained at a military checkpoint, according to witnesses, and has not been heard from since.

Mr. Llano’s family members said they believed rival drivers spread false information about Mr. Jasso and Mr. Llano among the marines and soldiers in an effort to eliminate competition.

“All we want to know is where he is,” Oziel Jasso Maldonado said.

The Units for Reistatement of Order “Cleaned Up” Syntagma Square

Πηγή: Greek Reporter

30/7/2011

The mayor of Athens, as he warned yesterday while speaking on the Greek channel SKAI, sent on Saturday, August 30, at 4 am, 25 trucks with employees of the municipality of Athens and Units for the Reinstatement of Order (MAT) to remove the tents and banners from Syntagma Square.
According to the police, 4 Greeks, 2 French, a German and a Romanian were arrested, accused of violations concerning the protection of the environment.
A public prosecutor of Athens was asked to conduct research a few days ago to find out whether the setting up of tents caused problems to the environment.
The protesters claimed they would continue to congregate peacefully at Syntagma Square and the rest of the squares around Greece in order to fight for their rights. They also accused the local authorities of coming to the square like thieves at 4 in the morning to destroy the tents and property of the protesters, comparing them to the police during the dictatorship of 1967-1974.

Police Database abuse hugely intrusive

The Big Brother Watch finds 900 police officers and staff breached the Data Protection Act in the last three years.

Πηγή: ITPRO

By Tom Brewster, 8 Jul 2011 at 09:57

Police abuse of databases has been branded “hugely intrusive” after a report found hundreds had broken the law in accessing important information.

Over 900 police officers and staff in the UK were subject to internal disciplinary procedures for breaching the Data Protection Act (DPA) over the past three years, the Big Brother Watch revealed.