Rebels cheerful despite difficulties
By Simon Jones
Polhó used to be just a small rebel village in Chiapas, Mexico,
about 700 Zapatistas living in a valley off the main road,
overlooked by the school.
Now Polhó is home to ten and a half thousand people driven from
their homes by paramilitary groups loyal to the government. The
valley is dotted with houses made out of rusty tin and cardboard.
According to Domingo, president of the municipal council, the
biggest problem is that people cannot leave the valley to work in
their fields. ``We are dependant on donated food; the situation at
the moment is very bad. and it is very difficult to sit around
all day and not be able to do anything. But we cannot leave.''
A young man takes me up to the top of a hill and explains why:
``Over there are paramilitaries. Over there more. And over there.
Over there the army.'' Polhó is encircled, constantly under
threat.
As we cross the road, the army roars past. Angry faces stare down
at us and shout abuse.
Manuel, one of the health promotors at the rebel-run clinic,
tells me that the poor housing and diet are responsible for many
people having bronchitis and flu, diarrhoea and parasites from
the water. There have been cases of typhoid, and a lot of people
have ulcers from going hungry. Stress is causing low blood
pressure problems, he adds. His clinic is chronically short of
medicines. The Red Cross clinic, Manuel alleges, has a lot more
medicines, but the wrong ones. The Mexican Red Cross is seen as
pro-government (a view disputed by the doctor in charge of the
clinic in Polhó) but the situation is so desperate that the
community has had to accept their help, while calling for the
International Red Cross to move in instead.
Despite it all, people keep going. Thirty women have formed a
weaving co-op. Other women grow vegetables. On the side of the
hill a welding school is being built, though they are not sure
where the welding gear will come from. And a group of university
students from Mexico City has started classes for the children.
The struggle goes on.
Young Nigerian killed by Belgian policy
By Soledad Galiana
A young Nigerian immigrant was killed by Belgian policemen when
she was been deported to Tongo. Semira Adamu (20) is now a symbol
for the anti-deportation movements around the world. She avoided
expulsion five times since she arrived in Belgium trying to
escape a pre-arranged marriage with a 65 year-old polygamous man.
On Tuesday 22 September she was killed while handcuffed to her
seat in a Sabena aircraft. She started shouting for help as
passengers were boarding the plane and the policemen tried to
silence her using two small pillows. She died hours later in
hospital.
Her death has caused uproar in Belgium and rejection of
legislation that specifies the ``use of the pillow'' to restrain
and silence deportees. Louis Tobback, Belgian Home minister,
defended the legality of the police action and their use of the
pillow. He was forced to present his resignation, which was
refused by the Belgian government. The Police Union has called
for the suspension of deportations. The French-speaking Women's
Council has called for sexual abuses to be included as one of the
reasons to be granted political asylum.
The Belgian government has suspended deportations pending an
inquiry.
Georges flattens the Caribbean
Georges will be remembered as one of the most destructive
huricanes ever experienced in the Caribbean area. Puerto Rico,
Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Virgin Islands, Guadalupe,
Dominica, Monserrat and St Kitts-Nevis were affected by winds and
heavy rain.
Crops have been destroyed, thousands of people are homeless and
dependent on international aid to rebuild their lives. In Santo
Domingo, where winds reached up to 210kmph, more than 200 people
have been killed. The Dominican government is being accused of
negligence because they chose to ignore the advice of the Miami
Huricane Centre and decided not to make public the list of safe
shelters in the island in advance to the arrival of Georges.
Expecting the hurricane, the Cuban authorities organised in less
than 48 hours the evacuation of nearly half a million people, who
were housed in secure shelters. Georges hit Guantanamo, Cuba, on
Wednesday evening, and moved towards the North-East, devastating
villages and towns with winds that reached 120 kmph and heavy
rain. Cuban President, Fidel Castro has called for the
international humanitarian aid directed to Cuba to be send to
Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Germany: Green-red government.
The social democrat leader of the SPD, Gerhard Schroeder, winners
of the German elections, is meeting representatives from the
Green Party on Friday 2 October. Both parties have worked
together in regional governments in Germany before and a new
national alliance will allow Schroeder to rely on a comfortable
majority in the German Parliament.
SPD won 288 seats and the Green Party 46. Helmut Kohl's party,
the CDU, obtained just 243 seats, the worst result since the 1949
election.
``Germany will be more modern and socially fair,'' said Schroeder
as soon as the election results were known. One of the possible
reforms - proposed by the Green Party and to be negotiated during
the meetings - will deal with Germany's restrictive citizenship
rights. This reform would allow immigrants to opt for double
nationality. Other issues tabled for negotiation by the Green
Party, dealing with international policy and military affairs,
received a much cooler reception from the SPD.
Washington was the scene of a new meeting between the Israeli PM,
Benjamin Netanyahu and Yassir Arafat, the president of the
Palestinian Authority. US President Bill Clinton hosted the
meeting on Monday aimed at relaunching the dialogue between both
parties and avoiding a possible independence declaration by
Yassir Arafat during his speech before the UN in New York on
Monday.
The Israeli government agreed to the transfer of 13% of the
occupied territories in the West Bank, with the condition that 3%
of this territory will be converted into a natural park under the
control of the Israeli army. Yaasir Arafat has agreed to these
terms. The next meeting is scheduled for the middle of October.
Meanwhile, clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli army
continued following the confiscation of 35 hectares of land in
the village of Um-al-Fajem, where the Israeli government wants to
build a training camp for the army.
On Monday, Albanian PM, Fatos Nano, presented his resignation to
the President Rexhep Meidani. Nano denounced ``suffocating
pressures'' and the lack of ``any solidarity signs'' as the main
reasons for his decision.. The resignation comes two weeks after
the disturbances provoked by the murder of Azen Hajdani, popular
member of the opposition Democratic Party of Sali Belisha. The
main candidate to form the new government is Pandeli Majiko,
general secretary of the Socialist Party.
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