Hostages of race
As Mexico's wealthy elite proudly boast their OECD status, the country's jails are teeming with indigenous people too poor or too proud to lie down.
By Nick Jones, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico.
THE THIRD GATE clangs shut behind us. We're finally in. It's become extremely difficult for foreign journalists or human rights workers to enter Cerro Hueco Jail, where most of the political prisoners in the state of Chiapas are held, and we've only made it thanks to the considerable inside knowledge of our contact, himself a former prisoner. It's an inevitable part of government policy to try to keep the inmates isolated and forgotten by the outside world.
Conditions inside are appalling. Thirteen hundred people crowded into a space designed for only 500. Many have to sleep in corridors or toilets, and drugs and prostitution are rife. The running of the prison falls more to Mafia-style organisations than to the guards, and everything has a price.
Daniel and Jose Angel Gomez Velasco were arrested in February of this year and charged with ``rebellion against the state'' (i.e. membership of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation) as well as possession of ammunition. Both of them are Tzeltal Indians from a community in the Altamirano municipality which settled on a local ranch after the owner fled in fear after the 1994 indigenous uprising. In theory, they should see their case heard by October, but in fact many prisoners wait years before their trial. When they want to be, the law and the judiciary are extremely lax in matters pertaining to the indigenous population. Among those in power there appears to be a consensus that the problem will go away if it is neglected for long enough.
Twisted justice
The twisted nature of official justice creates a kind of vicious circle. The autonomous municipalities have established their own rule of law and order and even have small jails - usually a shed with a padlock on the door - in which troublemakers may be held for a short period until they have sobered up or the theft of some cattle has been resolved. But this provides the state with a pretext to bring charges of kidnapping against members of the `Autonomous Councils': a useful way of removing the leadership of the indigenous movement.
Local courts are also heavily biased against non-mestizo culture. Adolfo Lopez Vazquez, a Chol Indian, was sentenced to 40 years for murder on the basis of a three-page confession given in Spanish. When a linguistic study carried out for the defence showed that his grasp of this language simply did not run to such lengths, the judge replied that her maid was a Chol and spoke Spanish perfectly well.
The prisoners do their best to keep their spirits up, but many suffer from despair and chronic depression. The medical service inside is insufficent; and, in any case, there is no money to buy medicines. The defence lawyers are constantly short of funding. Prisoners' families live on their neighbours' charity and suffer extreme hardship, unable to purchase even basic necessities such as salt or soap. It's a difficult life being a hostage of official silence but these people bear it heroically.
Australia's stolen generation
Two Australian Aborigines are suing the Australian federal government after being removed by force from their families more than 45 years ago. Lorna Cubillo and Peter Gunner were both eight years old when they were taken away from their parents in 1945 and 1956 respectively to be raised as white children in state institutions and church missions.
There are around 30,000 Aborigines in the so called Stolen Generation. This people are still suffering the consequences of the institutionalised racism of the Australian state. The state's police aimed to eliminate blackness started in 1880 , a policy which continued for nearly a century. Their assimilation into white culture has been described by the Australian Human Rights Commission as a form of genocide.
There are at least another 700 people who want to sue the government. The Australian prime minister, Paul Howard, has addicated any responsibility, saying that the present generation should not be paying for past deeds. He offered a personal apology earlier this year.
The case of Gunner and Cubillo follows a failed campaign in the High Court, known as the the Kruger case. The Kruger case sought to prove that a law allowing mixed-descent children to be removed from their biological mothers was unconstitutional. Many of the estimated 30,000 surviving victims say they were beaten, sexually abused or treated as slaves.
Islamists declare Dagestan Independent
On Tuesday 10 August, Muslim rebels proclaimed an independent Islamic state in the former Soviet republic of Dagestan, and up to now a member of the Russian Federation. Official sources said that there was also a call for a holy war (Yihad) against Russia.
The shura of Dagestan, a Islamic Supreme Council not recognised by Moscow, signed the independence declaration at a secret meeting. The independence declaration comes during one of the most serious outbreaks of violence in the region since the end of the Chechen war in 1996.
Police believe that the rebels are linked to the fundamentalist Wahhabi movement that aims to unite Chechnya and Dagestan into a single and independent Islamic state.
Refugees were quoted as saying the rebels were led by the Chechen Shamyl Basayev. Basayev was prime minister of Chechnya for seven months last year and he is still wanted by Moscow.
India and Pakistan clash again
Tensions between India and Pakistan are running high after India downed a Pakistani maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine aircraft, killing all 16 people on board. The governments of Delhi and Islamabad have offered conflicting versions of the incident, which took place on Tuesday, 10 August.
Indian military forces said that two Indian Air Force combat planes intercepted the aircraft and attacked it when it failed to land as it flew deep inside Indian airspace. Meanwhile, the Pakistani government said that the aircraft was flying on a reconnaissance mission and was shot down while inside Pakistani airspace.
The incident follows ten weeks of fighting between India and Kashmiri rebels backed by Pakistani forces in the border region.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)