-Caveat Lector-
RadTimes # 51 - September, 2000
aka "Shit That Matters"
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
"We're living in rad times!"
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LUVeR Alternative News is offering a daily audio show using selected
stories from RadTimes & other non-mainstream sources. Check it out!
<www.luver.org>
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ALERT!!
UPDATE ON JAIL SITUATION IN PRAHA
The OPH legal team is reporting that there are more than 859 prisoners
being held as a result of
S26 actions. The police are reporting that of that 859 around 200 are not
Czech citizens. Only 20
have been charged. 30 people inside the jails have been denied food, water
and sleep. We have reports
of people having limbs broken and teeth knocked out. One woman has a broken
spine. There is clear
evidence of torture by the police. [See below for solidarity info.]
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Contents:
---------------
--Shocking Human Rights Abuses Faced by Protestors in Prague Jails
--Appeal for solidarity; statement From INPEG [Prague]
--Prague Declaration
--Undercurrents report from Prague
--World Bank Has Failed At Reforms
--Mass Protest Nothing New for the IMF/WB
-Death toll rises to five, 30 injured [Bolivia]
--US spy software could devour RIP
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Begin stories:
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Shocking Human Rights Abuses Faced by Protestors in Prague Jails
Attention News and Assignment Editors FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2000
Contact: Chelsea Mozen 420 604 384452 or 02 6272349
To arrange interviews with witnesses recently released,, contact
Cyan IMMEDIATELY: 0605 879 504
Shocking Human Rights Abuses Faced by Protestors in Jail Police Brutality
Widespread, most severe for Czechs & Israelis
PRAGUE - In addition to the mass denial of the legal rights, individuals
have faced extreme brutality in Czech Jails. Paul Rosenthal from Seattle
Washington who was released this morning from the Olsanska jail in Prague
after forty hours states, "What is happening inside the Czech jails is more
than frightening. People have no rights, they are being beaten severely,
they are disappearing. Women are being forced to strip in front of male
guards and perform exercises. People with serious medical problems have been
denied help." The following are accounts confirmed by people that have been
released from jail:
� Women have been strip searched by male officers and have been forced to
perform physical exercises for their enjoyment
� Many individuals are being denied water, food, and sleep; some are able to
get food only if they pay guards, women and fascists are more likely to get
water
� Many people released have reported that before reaching police stations,
officers took individuals to isolated areas and beat them severely.
� Two Norwegians that went to a police station on Prisparni Street near
Vlatavska to report a stolen mobile phone witnessed behind briefly opened
doors that a number of people were handcuffed to the wall and being beaten
severely. This has also been confirmed by many reports from released persons
that in the processing rooms groups of 40 to 60 people were asked to spread
eagle while they were beaten, heads were knocked back, legs were kicked in,
and
numbers of men had their groins twisted or punched. Additionally people
handcuffed were tossed down stairs.
� There is one report that 22 people were crammed into a 4 square meter
cell.
� 30 People were detained at the Olsanska jail in an outdoor courtyard
overnight with no blankets or food. They were later moved to Balkova near
Pilsen.
� Two Germans that were detained in Lupacova, Praha 3 on Wednesday for
approximately eight hours were held with an Israeli, an American, a German,
and an Italian. The Israeli had been beaten severely, had difficulty
walking, a black eye, and likely had a broken rib. He has been denied
medical attention
� People with diabetes were not fed, people that needed medication were not
given it, the British Embassy had to intervene to get medication into the
jail.
� A Norwegian woman held in jail with 30 other women witnessed a German
woman with a badly injured leg where medics were denied.
� Right to legal representation and advice, right to interpreters, right to
food and water, right to basic medical attention, and the right to a phone
call have all been ignored on a widespread
scale.
� Czechs and Israelis are being beaten more drastically and are being
detained longer
� Many internationals are being moved from local stations to Balkova near
Pilsen which has one of the worst human rights records in the Czech
Republic.
INPEG International Press Agent
Office: 4202 2320830
Mobile: 420 604 384452
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Press Center: Parizska 9, Praha 1
(202) 777-2646 x2570 - US voicemail/fax
<http://www.inpeg.org>
For more information please visit the Independent Media Web site
<http://praha.indymedia.org/>.
----
This press release from INPEG in Prague, on beatings and human
rights violations of people arrested in the protests is based on eyewitness
accounts and is very disturbing. So is the report from the indymedia site.
People should call and fax the following numbers and demand that these
violations cease, and that all prisoners be given access to water, food,
medical attention, phone calls, and legal assistance.
If you can't get through to any of the numbers below (which may happen today
because it is a national holiday), please call the Czech embassy in
Washington, DC, as soon as possible:
202-274-9100; press 0 for operator
Call and fax:
Office of President Vaclav Havel:
011 4202 24310855 phone
011 4202 24373196 fax (it would be better to fax today [Thursday] because it
is a national holiday and offices are closed)
Ministry of the Interior:
011 4202 61421115
US Embassy in Czech Republic:
011 4202 57530663
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Appeal for solidarity; statement From INPEG [Prague]
[The INPEG www site has been hacked yesterday,
that�s why we use this personal e-mail account.]
This is an INPEG Appeal for solidarity statement:
On September, 26 there were massive protest in Prague
against the conference of the IMF and the World bank.
Around twelve thousand people demanded these two
institutions to shut down. It was a success - their
meeting was seriously disrupted and the protestors
arguments were raised. There were also clashes with
the police force, which was present in massive
numbers. Tens of protesters were arrested during the
protest but many more have been arrested since.
Throughout the following night massive police
retaliation took place. Anyone "suspected" of
belonging to the protesters side were chased down,
often beaten and arrested. The official number of the
arrested the morning after S26 was 422 people. As on
September, 27 the protests continued to some extend,
the police had a lot of time to search for those who
looked like activists. There are records that the
police were occasionally assisted by Czech nazis, both
while chasing protesters and at the same time at the
police stations to which the arrested were moved.
Today on Thursday, 28 the massive arrests are
continuing. A non-violent demonstration in front of
the Ministry of Interior against the police brutality
and in solidarity with the arrested took place.
Another 30 people were dragged away. The official
police sources say up till now 892 activist have been
arrested, majority of them having already been
released. The reports of those released are absolutely
horrifying. They are being denied access to phone,
they are beaten from time to time, at least at one
police station the Nazis have been allowed to access
to cells...
It is hard to get a clear picture of the situation in
Prague. Because of the police brutality some activist
are so scared that after they are released they try to
get out of the country as soon as possible. It doesn�t
allow us to record their evidence.
The media are hysterical indeed supporting the police
100% and actually whipping up the repression. As the
repressions have been aimed against Czech activists as
well, it�s hard to organize solidarity with the jailed
here as all the attempts to organize in the streets
result only into more instant arrests. At the same
time we have no chance to push our arguments through
the official media.
That�s why we appeal to international solidarity, as
immediate and strong as possible. The situation here
is critical. The arrested demand your solidarity. We
beg you to send faxes and E-mails protesting against
the treatment of those arrested. Keep in mind that
huge majority of the arrested are arrested only
because of their political conviction. The repression
is based on the collective guilt - the police must
stop their brutality and release them immediately.
If possible try to organize a protest in front of
Embassies of Czech republic. The sooner the better. If
there�s no Embassy in your town there might be a Czech
cultural center.
We thank you very much on behalf of the arrested
activist.
Yours, Viktor Piorecky (spokesmen of INPEG)
The President Havel�s office fax number:
00 420 2 24310851
The Minister of Interior:
00 420 2 61433560
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Prague Declaration
28 September 2000
We, the members of non-governmental and community-based organizations from
different parts of the world, gathered in Prague and signing this statement,
note the unprecedented early suspension of the 2000 annual general meeting
of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Given the
number of scheduled sessions, including meetings with non-governmental
organizations, that will evidently be canceled, the claim that they have
simply finished their business rings hollow.
We believe that the cancellation of the final day of meetings reflects the
institutions' recognition of their own lack of credibility. Confronted with
vigorous protests from organizations like ours and a refusal to accept the
empty rhetoric of "poverty reduction" and "debt relief" offered in response
to assertions of their responsibility for decades of economic malfeasance,
they have, at last, wisely chosen silence over more lies.
Our challenge to the right of these institutions and those who control them
to dictate economic policy, largely through the leverage gained through
illegitimate debts, has gone unanswered. Our call for a wholly new global
economic structure, one which mandates not a single model but many choices
for the many peoples of the world, is one that these institutions cannot
accept, or even comprehend.
We gathered in Prague for an exceptionally broad, inclusive, international
protest against the discriminatory and unjust policies of the IMF and the
World Bank. We oppose the undemocratic and elitist character of both the
institutions and the meetings they hold.
Our numbers include a great many young activists as well as people from
Central and Eastern Europe who have now inaugurated the movement against
corporate globalization in this region. Our numbers also include protesters
in over 30 other countries, including Bangladesh, South Africa, Argentina,
the United States, France, and India, who staged solidarity actions this
week.
We came to Prague to act in solidarity with the millions who could not be in
Prague: the impoverished women farmers of Africa, the workers laid off in
Asia, the Pacific and Caribbean islanders denied credit for their
livelihoods, the young women working in Latin American sweatshops.
We have spent our time in Prague not only protesting, but also discussing
positive, people-centered alternatives to the debt crisis, structural
adjustment programs, corrupt and environmentally devastating infrastructure
projects, and the economic philosophy of development through exploitation of
both the ecology and large majorities of the people in the South and in the
East.
At the same time we denounce the psychological terror and physical
repression executed by the Czech police forces before and during the
conference of the IMF and World Bank. Their actions, notwithstanding
instances of provocative behavior by a few protesters, have injured dozens
of innocent people and resulted in hundreds of unjustified arrests during
and after the essentially peaceful demonstrations. We express our
solidarity with the hundreds who remain imprisoned, and call for humane
treatment and speedy release of all those detained. We particularly express
our grave concern over reports of brutalization of those held in Czech
prisons.
We note that the World Bank itself has acknowledged this month that its
policies are failing. Its World Development Report, although subjected to
censorship within the institution, offers a revealing critique of the
growth-centered development philosophy that has long been the Bank's adamant
answer to every question. And its report on the transition economies of the
former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has revealed a tenfold increase in
poverty, from 2% to 21%, a clear indication that the neo-liberal recipe
peddled by the IMF and World Bank has failed yet another entire region of
the globe.
Given the evidence supplied by the World Bank itself, we would suggest that
it and the IMF, and the commentators who continue to support them, consider
that their calls for more of the same medicine, more of the same
conditionalities, are inadequate. A revolution in economics is called for,
one that returns control of economies to the people who live in them. The
time has come to put economics at the service of the people, rather than
entire societies at the service of economic models that have failed for over
20 years.
Our protests in Prague, following those in Melbourne, Okinawa, Geneva,
Chiang Mai, Washington, Seattle, and countless other cities, have again
exposed to the world the contradictions and inadequacies of corporate
globalization, and of the IMF and World Bank. Our protests also echo the
struggles going on today in Bolivia, one of the many places where people
from many sectors have risen up against the local manifestations of the
globalized economy. So long as that model continues to be imposed by the
rich and the powerful, organizations like ours shall continue to protest and
to do everything in our power to expose the plain failures of the system.
Wherever those who have taken upon themselves the power to make decisions
for the global economy will gather, we will be there to witness, to expose,
and to protest.
Signed*:
Focus on the Global South - Thailand (Nicola Bullard)
Initiative Against Economic Globalization (INPEG) - Czech Republic (Alice
Dvorska)
50 Years Is Enough Network - USA (Soren Ambrose)
EuroMarches Against Unemployment - Austria (Leo Gabriel)
ATTAC France (Christophe Aguiton)
Jubilee 2000 South Africa/Jubilee South - South Africa (Dennis Brutus)
Center for Economic & Policy Research - USA (Mark Weisbrot)
Rights Action - USA (Annie Bird)
National Free Union of Students - Germany (Stefan Bienefeld)
Zashita Trade Union / Alternativy Association - Russia (Boris Kagarlitsky)
& others...
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Undercurrents report from Prague
Undercurrents report live from Prague 26 Sept 2000
By Martin Palmer and Paul O' Connor, Undercurrents
The images presented to the planet when the International Monetary
Fund and World Bank hold their annual joint meetings are not ones of men in
suits making key decisions for entire nations. The latest images are now of
young people playing drums and waving banners, often lost in smoke and tear
gas fired from riot police. Today, as the meetings got underway in Prague's
former Communist-era Palace of Culture, a police and army guard set out to
ensure the security of the "castle" as activists have dubbed it. Around
8000 activists are on the streets of the capital of the Czech republic to
disrupt the meetings, taking inspiration from the actions in Seattle and
Washington DC.
On Sunday the Undercurrents video crew arrived at the Independent
Media Center to find police illegally insisting on checking the passports
of everyone who arrived. When the Undercurrents reporters refused to give
any details and attempted to enter, the police dragged Martin while another
grabbed his lens. The independent media responded by putting a dozen
cameras in the face of the officers and forcing them to leave.
Ya Basta! an Italian network of very together activists hijacked a
train to take them to Prague. 1,200, strong they led one of the three parts
of the demonstration. Protesters sorted themselves into three groups with
blue, pink and yellow colour's for ease of identification and cordination.
Flags in the three colours led the march off in opposite directions both to
surround the castle and also confuse the police.
At the police barricade on the road bridge opposite the conference
center, banners in various languages declared the protests illegal and that
force would be used to disperse people. A stand off was the result with
the Ya Basta! leading the yellow group trying to push past the police line.
Activists succeeded in taking two police batons as souvenirs. Having made
their was round to the other side of the center the Pink group, consisting
of mainly British activists, moved in. With a sound track from a Samba band
and activist folk band 'Seize the Day', activists got busy with fence
cutting. One fence cutter said " I am doing this to stop people being hurt
if the police try to force us into the side." Meanwhile the downed fence
was dragged off to become part of the activist's barricades. Police refused
to talk despite various musicians trying to open a dialogue.
A diminutive middle aged Indian woman from the Narmada dam campaign
stood nose to nose with the line of armed & armored police in gasmasks. The
pink group moved past the military tanks, hundreds of armored police, and
dozens of army personnel and found a side street blocked only by a thin
line of uniformed police. Masked up black clad activists grabbed a metal
barrier and ran at the line and a battle ensued with both sides getting
stuck in. Sticks and rocks were thrown as police responded with deafening
loud firecrackers, smoke grenades, and water cannons. One masked up young
man grabbed cameras screaming at the press, both independent and
mainstream, to stop filming. Meanwhile the samba band and other activists
blockaded the streets forcing a number of delegate's cars off the road. One
Mercedes had its windows smashed and after making a run for it the suited
middle aged male occupants had an undignified clamber over the police
barricades to escape.
City center McDonalds restaurants lost a few windows while taxi
drivers complained that activists were targeting them for carrying
delegates to and from their hotels. The British group got a call on their
mobile from a woman named Estelle. She has a broken arm and head injuries
and is hiding in a hospital from the police. Radio and television news is
reporting that 25 police officers have been injured. Delegates have been
told that they can not leave the conference center as they are surrounded
but later reports said that they are being evacuated on trains.
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World Bank Has Failed At Reforms
From Environmental Defense
(26 September, 2000 - Washington) The World Bank has failed to bring
its lending practices in line with its environmental and poverty
alleviation goals, Environmental Defense announced today during the
Bank's annual meeting in Prague. Instead, Bank funds continue to flow
with lessened accountability to corrupt government bureaucracies and
corporate clients while global poverty trends worsen.
"The Bank's mandate is poverty alleviation through sustainable
development," said Bruce Rich, International Program director at
Environmental Defense and author of a book on the history of the World
Bank. "This is the only reason taxpayers in the industrialized world,
faced with their own shrinking social safety nets, should support such
an institution. Yet the Bank is failing in this mission. Too many Bank
loans go to corporations and corrupt governments for projects that are
unsustainable and that have little or no impact on the world's poor."
"The Bank's latest internal audit shows that less than half of its
lending operations are likely to produce sustainable benefits. In the
poorest countries, only one-third of its projects are sustainable,"
said Korinna Horta, senior economist at Environmental Defense. The
Bank's private finance and investment guarantee arms have subsidized
four and five star luxury hotels in Latin America, and Coca-Cola
bottling plants and Dutch breweries in the former Soviet Union. One
project, a Canadian gold mine in Kyrgystan, was responsible for three
toxic spills in the past two years, one of which poured two tons of
cyanide in the Barskoon River, poisoning local communities.
Massive corruption in debtor countries also keeps money from those it
should benefit. A Bank report determined that its own shoddy
accounting practices had allowed corrupt Indonesian officials to steal
over $8 billion in Bank loan money over 30 years. Yet just a little
more than a year after this report came out, the Bank disbursed over
$1.3 billion more to Indonesia, without effective measures to curb
corruption.
At the same time, global poverty trends have worsened, with the number
of people living on less than US $1 a day rising from 1,197 million in
1987 to 1,214 million in 1997. In 33 Bank borrowing countries life
expectancy is lower than a decade ago.
----
Environmental Defense, a leading national nonprofit organization based
in New York, represents more than 300,000 members. Since 1967 we have
linked science, economics, and law to create innovative, equitable,
and cost-effective solutions to the most urgent environmental
problems.
For more information, contact:
Allison Cobb
Environmental Defense
212-505-2100
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web site: <http://www.environmentaldefense.org>
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Mass Protest Nothing New for the IMF/WB
REPORT DETAILS PATTERN OF SOUTHERN RESISTANCE
By Brian Kenety
PRAGUE, Sep. 25 (IPS) -- A report released today details what the authors
say is a largely ignored pattern of protests in poor countries against the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its policies, which has been eclipsed
by high-profile actions in the West.
Since the "Battle of Seattle" in December, when anti-globalization
protesters laid siege to the ministerial meetings of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), there have been at least 50 separate episodes of civil
unrest in 13 poor countries, all directed at the IMF, said the report by the
London-based World Development Movement (WDM).
The report, "States of Unrest: Resistance to IMF Policies in Poor
Countries," comes on the eve of massive protests against the Fund and the
World Bank, whose annual meetings get officially underway here tomorrow.
The WDM said that the media have heralded the dawn of a new movement in
Europe and North America epitomized by protests aimed at the WTO, IMF and
the World Bank.
"However, this 'new movement' portrayed by the media as students and
anarchists from the rich and prosperous global north is just the tip of the
iceberg," said co-authors, Jessica Woodroffe and Mark Ellis-Jones, in the
introduction to the report.
"In the global south, a far deeper and wide-ranging movement has been
developing for years, largely ignored by the media," they said.
"Millions of people around the world have been brave enough to protest
against IMF policies. From Argentina to Zambia, farmers, priests, teachers
and trade unionists have called for an end to IMF-imposed economic reforms,"
said Woodroffe in a separate statement.
She called attempts by the Fund and the Bank to dismiss protesters as rich
students "naive and insulting."
Furthermore, Woodroffe said it was significant that these protests have
happened since the IMF announced its new commitment to poverty reduction at
its annual meetings last September.
"The depth of opposition reveals just how far the IMF has to go if its new
poverty reduction rhetoric is to be anything more than a re-branding
exercise," she said.
According to the WDM, of the 50 separate protests documented in the report,
conservative estimates indicate that more than half of them ended in the
deployment of riot police or the army.
A total of 10 people have lost their lives and over 300 persons have been
injured in protests against the IMF and its policies.
"Millions of people around the world have seen the IMF attempting to
undermine their national governments. It is seen as forcing countries into a
one-size-fits-all blue print of economic development," said Woodroffe.
The report notes that the standard IMF package of reforms, called a
Structural Adjustment Program, often involves common elements.
These include reducing government spending by laying off workers, freezing
salaries, and slashing funding for health, education and social services.
Other elements are the privatization of state-run industries, leading to
massive lay-offs with no social security provision and the loss of
inefficient services to remote or poor areas; currency devaluation and
export promotion, leading to the soaring cost of imports, land use charged
for cash crops, and reliance on international commodity markets.
Developing countries are still locked into a dependent relationship with the
international financial institutions and donor governments, said the WDM
report, which gives a detailed country-by-country summary that, it says,
shows how deeply the poor oppose the implementation of "liberalization
policies which hurt the poor."
In Bolivia, escalating protests against the privatization of water and a 200
percent price hike led to serious riots and calls for the government to end
IMF policies. The president was forced to call a state of emergency and six
people were killed.
In Ecuador this January, IMF protests led to the storming of the
legislature, briefly occupied by 3,000 people, with another 10,000
protesting outside.
In Paraguay in June, participants in a 48-hour general strike against the
privatization of telephone, water and rail service were told it was
non-negotiable as part of the IMF package.
In July in Nigeria, the newly elected president faced a general strike
against the deregulation of the oil sector and fuel price hikes (part of the
IMF program).
The Nigerian House of Representatives adopted a non-binding motion urging
the federal government to suspend all activities with respect to the IMF
loan.
The report notes that in Brazil this month, more than a million people voted
against IMF reforms in a mock referendum, and thousands followed the vote
with a mass demonstration called "Cry of the Excluded."
"States of Unrest" details similar examples of protests in Columbia, Costa
Rica, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa and Zambia, countries where the
World Development Movement says IMF policies are threatening fragile and
newly established democracies.
Meanwhile, in the run-up to the IMF/World Bank meetings here in Prague, it
is the students and anarchists from the global North who are making world
headlines.
About 1,000 activists took part in a march yesterday that was organized by
INPEG, a loose coalition of Czech anarchists, environmentalists and leftist
social activists united against economic globalization.
The group is calling for the IMF and World Bank to be shut down.
The coalition notes that the IMF itself has said that "in recent decades
nearly one-fifth of the world population have regressed in relative and
sometimes even absolute terms" and that this is "arguably one of the
greatest economic failures of the 20th century."
But INPEG says that the international financial institutions "refuse to see
their current lending policies to poverty-ridden countries as part of the
problem. In 54 percent of countries borrowing funds from the World Bank, the
people experienced stagnating per capita income, rising poverty, declining
life expectancy, or a combination of all of the above."
INPEG, this week, is hosting a "Counter Summit" at which activists from
around the world are discussing grassroots alternatives to the IMF/World
Bank development model.
The coalition, which has emerged as a the main organizer of the more radical
elements protesting here, is calling on protesters to "make some noise" --
to "bring whistles, shakers, and things to rattle" to Prague in order to
drown out the IMF/World Bank annual meetings "in a cacophony against
capital."
"Imagine the IMF and WB delegates unable to concentrate because of the
endless cacophony outside. Imagine their weary surprise when having finally
managed to return to their hotels, the noise continues throughout the night
keeping them awake in their sterile 'luxury' rooms wondering why they are
missing out on all the fun outside!" said the group.
A separate protest yesterday, a mock funeral procession staged by the debt
cancellation crusaders Jubilee 2000, also drew about 1,000 people.
Organizers say that 19,000 children die each day because developing
countries must spend scarce funds to service their debts, diverting money
from basic health, education and social services.
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Death toll rises to five, 30 injured
as roadblocks and violent protests continue
By PETER McFARREN
Associated Press Writer
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) _ Violent protests by coca-leaf farmers
demanding an end to an anti-drug campaign raged throughout Bolivia,
leaving five people dead. Roadblocks set up by the farmers have
paralyzed commerce and cost the economy 50 million dollars, the
government said.
The rising tide of protest has highlighted an array of demands,
including calls for the resignation of President Hugo Banzer, land
reforms, and compensation for coca-leaf farmers or investment in
new agricultural crops.
Evo Morales, the head of the coca-leaf farmers organization in
the Chapare region in Bolivia's tropical heartland, said
negotiations with the government broke down Monday night, and
declared, ``Banzer would do us a great favor by resigning.''
``Coca is a question of life or death,'' Morales said. Coca leaf
is the farmers' key cash crop, and is the base ingredient to make
cocaine.
Only 2,000 hectares (4,940 acres) of coca leaf remain in the
Chapare, 5 percent of what existed four years ago. Banzer says
Bolivia will no longer be producing cocaine by the end of the year.
Protest leaders in Cochabamba, Bolivia's third largest city,
demanded Banzer's resignation Monday as at least 15,000 protesters
rallied in the main square. The demonstration was broken up by
soldiers and police using tear gas.
The minister of the Presidency, Walter Guiteras, rejected the
resignation demands and said, ``If Banzer leaves, so does democracy
-- those are the rules of the game.''
As anger spread, the umbrella group of community organizations
called the La Paz Civic Committee announced the capital would be
hit by a general strike on Wednesday. Their central issue was a
demand that foreign investors be barred from buying into the
national telephone system.
Two deaths and 30 injuries among protesters occurred Sunday on
the road between La Paz and Cochabamba and a third death in Guaqui,
a town on the border with Peru, on the shores of Lake Titicaca.
An agronomist was killed Monday by a rock thrown by farmers on
the road linking La Paz with the Yungas and Beni tropical regions
of the country, and a coca farmer in Yungas was killed.
The road blocks are already resulting in food shortages in most
major cities and will become acute by the weekend.
On another front, government said that three-fourths of the
public school teachers, who are on a general strike and failed to
show up for work Monday, will be fired.
The government says it will suspend classes for the year if the
strike does not end by Wednesday.
Losses related to the roadblocks are estimated at dlrs 50
million, the government says, aggravating an economic recession.
Farmers on the Bolivian highlands continued blocking access
roads to La Paz, Chile and Peru. Soldiers were only able to
temporarily lift roadblocks.
Farmers on the highlands are demanding that the government
reconsider a new water law that congress was debating, changes in
agrarian reform laws and an end to coca leaf eradication. They do
not grow coca, but most of them chew the leaves as a stimulant.
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US spy software could devour RIP
<http://www.vnunet.com/News/1111717>
By David Ludlow and Liesbeth Evers,
Network News, [27 Sep 2000]
Developers in the US have uncovered a way of snubbing the American
equivalent of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill, prompting
speculation that a similar system could be introduced into the UK.
The US government's software, called Carnivore, is installed on ISP
networks to enforce court orders calling for electronic monitoring.
Operating in a similar way to commercial so-called sniffers, Carnivore looks
at all data on a network, throwing away information that is not contained by
the court order. For example, it could capture emails to and from a specific
account.
Until now, only the FBI knew how the product worked. Hiding behind claims
that Carnivore was partially based on commercial software, and that hackers
could find a way to circumvent it, the FBI refused to open the source code.
But its attempts at secrecy have backfired, after a company called Network
Ice released the source code for a rival product, altivore.c
<www.networkice.com/altivore>.
The code complies with the requirements for Carnivore, and is a legal
substitute in the case of a court order. By making it open source, Network
Ice has shown how the software works, and how public privacy can be
maintained.
The UK's equivalent of Carnivore is a black box that, under the RIP Bill,
will be placed at ISP premises to monitor emails. It is unclear whether it
will be a mandatory device, which will leave the public suspicious of what
it does, or an open source device that meets a defined technical
description.
Security analyst Peter Williams, of DataCheck Consultants, said that if the
technology can be developed in the US there is no reason why it could not be
used to scupper the RIP in the UK. "The government didn't really think
through the technology for this," he said.
A Home Office spokesman said that the government intends to discuss the
matter with a technical advisory board.
======================================================
"Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control."
-Jim Dodge
======================================================
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
-Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
======================================================
"It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society."
-J. Krishnamurti
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