Tag Archives: Protests

Haiti protesters stone man to death as political crisis deepens

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haiti slipped deeper into unrest on Friday as gangs of former soldiers roamed the capital and a mob of protesters beat a man to death with stones, following a botched election that has left no successor for outgoing President Michel Martelly.

Reuters witnesses said the crowd attacked an unidentified man wearing military style clothes. The protesters accused him of being a member of a widely unpopular army that was disbanded in 1995.

Martelly is due to leave office on Sunday but squabbling politicians have failed to organize an interim government to replace him, after the runoff election to choose his successor was scrapped last month amid violence and fraud allegations.

(Writing by Frank Jack Daniel)

Self-styled militia group joins Oregon occupation, could raise tensions

BURNS, Ore. (Reuters) – Several members of self-described militia groups have joined armed protesters occupying the headquarters of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, threatening to raise tensions in the week-long siege over land rights.

One of those organizations, the Pacific Patriots Network, issued a “call to action” for its members to establish a safety perimeter around the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in remote southeastern Oregon as leaders of the protest again said they had no immediate plans to leave.

“We wish to establish a safety perimeter of protection for the occupiers so as to prevent a Waco-style situation from unfolding during this peaceful occupation,” leaders of the group said in a statement posted on its website.

“That’s really the point of militias: it’s community involvement,” Brandon Rapolla, a member of Pacific Patriot Network, told Reuters in an interview near a building being used by Ammon Bundy and his brother, Ryan, to run the occupation. “If something happens in your community, that’s what militias are for.”

The Pacific Patriot Network earlier in the standoff said it did not support seizing federal property.

In 1993 federal agents laid siege to a compound in Waco, Texas, being held by the Branch Davidians religious group for 51 days before the standoff ended in a gun battle and fire in April of that year. Four federal agents and more than 80 members of the group died, including 23 children.

Some two dozen armed protesters have occupied the headquarters of the refuge since last Saturday, marking the latest incident in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of land and resources in the U.S. West.

The move followed a demonstration in support of two local ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven, who were returned to prison earlier this week for setting fires that spread to federal land.

A lawyer for Hammond family has said that the occupiers do not speak for the family.

Ammon Bundy met briefly with Harney County Sheriff David Ward on Thursday but rejected the lawman’s offer of safe passage out of the state to end the standoff.

During a press conference on Friday morning, Bundy seemed to soften his position slightly, saying: “We will take that offer but not yet and we will go out of this county and out of this state as free.”

Both Bundy and the sheriff have said that the two sides would talk again on Friday.

Following Bundy’s press conference on Friday morning a lands right activist opposed to the occupation spoke to the media.

“This is about furthering an extremist right-wing agenda,” Barrett Kaiser, a Montana resident and a representative of the Center for Western Priorities, said angrily, as supporters of Bundy tried to interrupt him and argue with him. “They need to be charged and prosecuted.”

Local residents have expressed a mixture of sympathy for the Hammond family, suspicion of the federal government’s motives and frustration with the occupation.

The leaders of the armed occupation are Ammon Bundy and his brother, Ryan Bundy. Their father, Cliven Bundy, along with a band of armed men, stared down federal agents trying to seize his livestock in Nevada in 2014. Many of the other occupiers also are from outside Oregon.

The Bundys say they want the federal government to turn over its land holdings in the area to local authorities and that they will leave after they have accomplished their goal.

Federal law enforcement agents and local police have so far kept away from the occupied site, maintaining no visible presence outside the park in a bid to avoid a violent confrontation.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in Burns, Oregon; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Protesters Storm Afghan Presidential Palace over Recent ISIS Beheadings

Thousands of protesters marched outside the palace compound in Kabul on Wednesday to denounce recent abductions and killings of seven members of the Hazara Shiite minority.

Before arriving at the palace gates, the protesters walked for almost four hours carrying the green-draped coffins of  seven Hazaras who had been kidnaped and beheaded — four men, two women and a nine-year-old girl, Shukria. Many chanted “Death to the Taliban,” ”Down with the Government” and “Death to Pakistan.” The government is convinced the deaths were caused by an Islamic State group.

10,000 people marched to demand justice for the Shiite minority and called on the government to do more to ensure the nation’s security or step down. The protests come from the growing discontent at the government’s inability to counter groups such as the Taliban and Islamic State-inspired factions.  

According to news reports, at one point, presidential guards opened fire as some of the protesters who tried to scale the walls and get into the palace grounds. The president’s deputy spokesman, Zafar Hashemi, said the shooting wounded 10 people.

Shortly afterward, Ghani went live on national television, appealing for calm and promising that the Hazara deaths would be avenged. “The nation’s pain is my pain,” he said, vowing the authorities would have “no mercy” on the killers.

“Like you, I will not calm down until the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice. We shall revenge the blood of our brothers and sisters,” he said, adding that the “enemies of Afghanistan” are trying to create disunity and “bring ethnic and sectarian violence” to the country.

Nepal Police Clear Indian Border Checkpoint by Forcibly Removing Protesters

Protesters along the India-Nepal border were forcibly removed by Nepalese police on Monday, allowing over 200 trucks who had been stuck there for 40 days to finally enter India.

The Agence France-Presse news agency reported that police used batons on the protestors and burned down tents that they were using to block the border checkpoint.

But while the trucks were cleared to enter India, trucks bringing fuel and other supplies to Nepal were being blocked by Indian customs officials. Nepal is currently under a severe fuel shortage that has brought the country to a virtual standstill, according to Time.

The large scale protests taking place in Nepal began in August after the country adopted a new constitution. Minority groups, including the Madhesi and Tharu, believe they have not been accurately represented in the new constitution because it divides the group into a number of states and dilutes their political power. The protests have also brought a political standoff between Nepal and India, as Nepal believes India is encouraging the civil unrest and protests and purposefully blocking their fuel supplies from entering Nepal.

Late last week, Nepal signed an agreement with China to refill their fuel reserves.

Since the protests began in August, 45 people have lost their lives, including an Indian man who was shot by Nepalese police on Monday. Nepalese officials report that the man was among a group of ethnic protesters who were attacking a police station with petrol bombs and stones, according to the Washington Post.

“European Day of Action for Refugees” Brings Protests

Saturday marked a day of protests across Europe after a Facebook-driven activist campaign called for a “day of action” on behalf of refugees.

“We can’t continue to allow thousands to die trying to reach Europe as they search for safety, hope and the chance to live another day,” the Facebook page states.  “We can’t stay silent anymore as our politicians and the media are stigmatizing these men, women and children as threats and burdens. We can’t let our governments close all our borders and build fences to keep people in need out. That’s not what Europe should be about.”

Marchers in London worked their way to 10 Downing Street to call on Prime Minister David Cameron to accept more than the 20,000 Syrians he agreed to take over the next five years.  The group held signs that read things like “Don’t Bomb Syria,” “Refugees welcome” and “Solidarity with refugees.”

Protests took place in Denmark, Austria, Romania, Greece, France and Finland.

Meanwhile, debate in Washington raged on Sunday morning talk shows about the role the U.S. can play in accepting Syrian refugees.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut suggested the U.S. could take in 50,000 refugees.

“It doesn’t stand to reason that Germany is going to take 800,000 and the U.S. has only taken 1,500,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” “If we want credibility in the region, we’ve got to be seen as a partner in trying to solve this humanitarian crisis.”

Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson said that any help should not compromise national security.

“It is not the fanciful to think that ISIS may be assaulting some of those refugees with some of their operatives,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” “We are taking shortcuts in terms of vetting process. …  . And we need to be first concerned about our own national security. So we are a compassionate nation, but we’ve got to fully vet the individuals that we would take in.”

Russia Burns Food Despite Citizen Anger

Russian citizens are protesting a government decision to burn 350 tons of food rather than distributing it to the nation’s poor.

Government troops intercepted a contraband food shipment including Irish pork and cheeses, Italian kiwis and more.  Apparently some of the food was being shipped to the BMW car racing team that is participating in an event in Moscow.

“The department decided to impound goods at the checkpoint due to gross violation of sanitary rules,” Tass quoted food watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor as saying.

A spokesman for the Kremlin said that the policy of destroying food is likely to continue.

“I agree that it does not look pleasant,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov conceded in an interview to RBC News.

The Moscow Times was critical of the government’s action, stating “starvation and deprivation weren’t abstract concepts to Soviet people — even privileged Soviet people — just a couple of generations ago.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin banned Western food imports in 2014 in retaliation for sanctions placed against Russia due to their invasion of Ukraine.