Good news! The magesterio announced yesterday on Radio Universidad that nobody died in the June 14 attack on striking teachers by the police in Oaxaca City.
Immediately after the attack, the rumor spread that at least four teachers, including a child, had died and that the bodies were being held at the police station but no one had been able to confirm or deny this until now.
The Asemblea of teachers and social groups succeeded in shutting down the indigenous dance festival, the Guelaguetza, that was scheduled for the 17th & 24th of July. Governor Ruiz announced the festival would be postponed but no other date was given.
It is said that the Asemblea is planning an alternative free dance festival.
Governor Ruiz has asked President Fox for funding to help the hotel association and the secretary of tourism reimburse tourists and hotels for lost revenue.
Hopefully Ticketmaster will refund the tickets for my friend and I.
The Seattle Times July 4, 2006 reported that the Khmer tribunal is starting so I went on-line and found the article below by The New Republic Magazine on July 12, 2006.
These are some pictures we took of the Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh Cambodia in 2002:
Observers see trouble ahead for the tribunal:
CAMBODIA’S WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL.
Trial and Error
by Joshua Kurlantzick
07.12.06
… In a hall of the royal palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, in front of a Buddhist monk, judges for the upcoming tribunal of the Khmer Rouge were sworn into office. “The time for justice has finally arrived,” United Nations Under-Secretary-General Nicolas Michel told the Daily Telegraph.
Soon, the capital will be transformed into a hive of activity for the long-delayed tribunal of top leaders of the Khmer Rouge, who killed some 1.7 million of their countrymen between 1975 and 1979. There’s not much time left: Khmer Rouge supreme leader Pol Pot is dead, and top Khmer Rouge lieutenants, men like Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, are aging and unwell. After the United Nations last year gave final approval to the tribunal, organizers chose a site, began training court workers, and started translating documents.
As I found on a recent visit, Cambodians clearly want the tribunal to begin. In a poll taken by the Khmer Institute of Democracy, a Phnom Penh NGO, nearly 97 percent of Cambodians favored a Khmer Rouge trial, and over 70 percent said they would attend its hearings. Yet that 97 percent may wind up 100 percent unsatisfied, a lesson for other tribunals like the ones in Sierra Leone or Iraq, or a potential future tribunal for East Timor. Despite praise from U.N. officials about the tribunal’s potential, the major actors needed to create an effective tribunal–in this case, China, the United States, the United Nations, and the Cambodian government itself–all have not truly gotten on board, and Cambodia could wind up with a badly misgoverned trial. And a failed tribunal would be a disaster not only for Pol Pot’s survivors, who desire some closure. As could happen in Sierra Leone or East Timor, a failed tribunal would decimate the country’s justice system and political culture, which are already on life support.
Read More
Photo From “Oaxaca Noticias”
The local “Oaxaca Noticias” newspaper estimated 500,000 marchers at the 4th Oaxaca Megamarch…a historic event that included supporters from several neighboring states.
Starting with a motorcycle cavalcade and many automobiles, the fourth mega-march to oust the Governor stretched out along five miles of the nine-mile route from the airport road to Benito Juarez Soccer Stadium. When the first marchers arrived at the stadium many were still at the airport road.
By 11pm my friend and I who had been watching from the Soccer Stadium were exhausted and went home. By that time the street was still full of marchers coming from the airport.
This is an eye witness narrative written by my friend Patricia Gutierrez from Queretaro who, with her luck and mine, visited me the night of the attack on the teachers in the Zocalo in Oaxaca City on June 14, my birthday…14 days after I arrived in Oaxaca.
Last Tuesday, June 6, my newly minted husband, Jose Roberto, and I, decided to go visit my dear friend Zoe Goetz, from Salem, Oregon, who had just moved to the city of Oaxaca, the state capital of Oaxaca, around the 1st. This same city is described in a travel guide as being quaint. Unfortunately like many of its citizens we got another, non-touristy, view of things.
When we arrived, at my friend’s apartment on the 14th, around midnight, we saw some people, teachers specifically, gathered in the Zocalo which is in the heart of this historic city, sitting under tarps and holding signs protesting their education system, salaries, etc. They are also demanding the ouster of their governor, a member of PRI the country’s very corrupt and sole governing body for over 70 years up until 2000 when Pres. Vicente Fox won. In general they blame the governor for their bleak and further deteriorating situation. We had seen something of these protesting teachers (protesting for over 20 days) on the evening news in Queretaro where we live, but from what happened next things had clearly been downplayed in the media. And truth be told I guess we are like most people in that it really doesn’t seem real when you watch these types of events playing out on TV, over and over I might add, in the general comfort of one’s living room, sandwiched in between commercials for Pepsi and the World Cup and Condoms (yeah this is Mexico they’re more honest about their sexuality I guess).
When we woke up the next morning at Eunice’s, Jose and I were suffering with terrible sore throats, burning sinuses and headaches. So we figured a little bit of Vitamin C and aspirin from the local pharmacy would help. Zoe pointed us two blocks up from her apartment, toward the Zocalo. So off we went.
There was a strange odor hanging in the air. Our eyes, noses and throats burned even more. There were barricades made up of lines of people (in other areas we would also see small buses) near where we were stopped. We asked two passers-by about a pharmacy as nothing appeared to be open. We were informed that we would probably find nothing open as the police had swept the area intent upon removing the protesting teachers, and their supporters, at about 4 a.m. with tear gas and bullets dropped from overhead by low-flying helicopters. Several people gathered around us when they realized we were tourists and we were asking questions as to why all of this had occurred?!
We also heard unconfirmed reports from those present, that the police had shot and killed two children and four teachers. When we asked where the bodies were we were told that the police had them hidden in their police station.
There were so many injured from amongst the teachers that the local hospitals said that they could receive no more injured. There was a confirmed report of 50+ injured protesters.
There is a confirmed report of one police officer being injured.
We met many, many articulate, concerned and compassionate individuals. Talk about grace under fire. These folks were the epitome of it. And, like the rest of us, wanting only to be heard and treated with respect.
You can imagine our reaction to all of this. We definitely were a long way from Salem, Oregon, that’s for sure. We became even more alarmed when we realized there was a police helicopter flying very low right above our heads and we turned and saw a man with a broken piece of mirror trying to obstruct their view by shining it on the helicopter while someone else on the ground near by was taking a video of the scene. Jose and I rushed back to the apartment feeling utterly overwhelmed by what we had seen, heard and smelled at the Zocalo.
When we shared all of this with Zoe we realized why she had gotten an odd text message from her landlord earlier that morning advising her to not leave the apartment and not go downtown (to the Zocalo). We clearly never do as we are told. Jose decided that if nothing else he would go back and take pictures of the situation and share these over the Internet. He made Eunice and me stay behind. That lasted about 10 or 15 minutes. Zoe and I decided that we had to go and find him and not leave him out there on his own, and see for ourselves.
Everyone simply shared their story with us. No one demanded anything of us.
Jose asked permission to take the pictures that I am passing along here. We were escorted past the barricades so that we might speak with a spokesperson for the protesters. We met a local human rights worker who had been told all of the same things we had heard. He was trying to collect evidence so that he might further assist them in their cause, and call in support from the federal level. We also met a teacher who was beaten by a police nightstick. He had 2000 pesos stolen by the police. He only makes 3200 pesos every two weeks. It takes about $11.40 in pesos to purchase one U.S. dollar right now. Someone else had an empty canister of tear gas. A young woman said that they had collected shell casings from what appeared to be a large caliber weapon. We encountered a few healthcare workers who were volunteering their time trying to care for the injured protesters.
Since Jose and I arrived here we have watched on the evening news, on a daily basis, some form of civil unrest in various states across this republic. Mostly on a very large scale. When we go grocery shopping or to the movie theater it is customary to see police officers patrolling outside, in the parking lot, and inside of the theater with an AK-47, sub-machine gun and the like.
Here the authorities are scarier than any criminal element that may be lurking about.
At no time did we feel threatened by any of these protesting teachers.
Thousands of people have been demonstrating for several days and nights in the streets of Bangkok calling for Prime Minister Thaksin to step down. One hundred university and business leaders signed a letter pleading for the King to appoint a new Prime Minister.
Yesterday, I heard that no one knows where he has been for the last couple days. Since he is from Chiang Mai, we think he may be up here trying to get support from the rural Thais. He is getting desperate. The Bangkok Post yesterday reported that Thaksin will award several billion baht (40 baht to the dollar) to the rural villages who have shown “responsible planning” (a buy-off since there will be a reelection in April) and several million baht to victims and familiies of the 1973 military coup that left scores of people dead in the streets. Everything he does just makes the Thai elite angrier but he depends on the uneducated rural patriots for support.
No permission to confront in this culture often ends up with emotions boiling over in the end…sometimes ending in violence. However in these recent street rallies the world should be proud of Thailand… the participants, dedicated to nonviolence, have shown incredible discipline as have the police and security guards…making a peaceful but strong statement about healthy reform.
Visitors, to the south of Thailand, including foreigners, will soon have an opportunity to experience muslim life in a village in the province of Yala. A “Widower’s Village” is being built in Rotanbu Village under a resettlement project funded by Her Majesty the Queen. The 150 homes, built by the Thai military, are for Buddhist and Muslim women who lost loved ones in terrorist attacks and deaths caused by the Thai military in the southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. Holiday makers can stay in a home for a week-end for 200 baht ($5) a day. The Queen requests that visitors not interfere with muslim prayer rituals out of respect for the Quran. There will be no time for loneliness, one woman says.
On National Children’s Day in Thailand, it is a tradition for the Prime Minister to deliver a positive “motto.” This year the wealthy PM Thaksin who owns Thai Air and other assets said that children should read more and think for themselves so they become smart successful adults. A secondary student, however, respectfully asked the PM whether children should value honesty and simplicity over succeeding by any means necessary. Oops.
The irony is that the PM evidently does not believe in advocating the same for the adults ministers under him. Amid flagging popularity in the cities and on-going feuding with the press, Thaksin recently took a dog and pony show to Roi Et in an impoverished province in the northeast. In his “reality show” he says he has done all the thinking and ministers just have to follow his instructions, eg, women should add sticky rice to their hand-woven baskets to add value…never mind that the coconut milk in sticky rice would sour on it’s way to Bangkok.
Most people here seem to think (for themselves) as, one columnist put it, “it’s just a stunt to fool the farmers” into thinking he is doing something for them. “When he comes to camp out in Roi Et just to give us some buffalos, land or knock-down houses it goes to show he doesn’t understand the root causes of poverty.”
Most people reportedly are not even listening to the show as it is on pay for view TV that most cannot afford.
Since January 2004, southern Thailand has been gripped by a shadowy insurgency that has killed over 1,000 people and divided local communities along religious and ethnic lines. “Bangkok,” ie the Thai government, has responded forcefully to the security threat, but the violence continues.
So who exactly is behind the insurgency? To shed light on this murky conflict and provide a regional perspective on the security threat, last night the Foreign Correspondents Club sponsored a panel discussion of some of the foremost researchers in this field. Zachary Abuza, professor of political science at Simmons College, Boston, an expert on Jemaah Islamiyah who was responsible for the Bali bombings and author of a forthcoming book on the conflict in southern Thailand joined Francesca Lawe-Davies, a Jakarta-based analyst for the International Crisis Group who covers Thailand for this respected think tank and Don Pathan, regional desk editor at the Nation, a frequent reporter on the complex political, ethnic and social make-up of the south.
There are concerns that the wave of bombings could eventually spread to other parts of Thailand. For decades, the Malay people in the three provinces in the south that were incorporated in recent history into Thailand, have resisted a forced assimilation into Thai buddhist culture. The three Thai pillars of nation, religion (Buddhist) and monarchy just doesn’t jive with Islam. The feeling in the south is that this is our land and why should we change for you? The panel agreed that the violence seems to be spurred by an ethno-nationalist movement that wants to reclaim Pattani as the Malay Muslim homeland…their historic Islamic Sultinate…that they are very proud of. It includes Islam but does not seem to be part of the international Wahabi religious jihad.
There seems to be no infighting among the younger generation of resistors that have spurred bragging rights in other areas like Iraq in order to get on the international radar screen. Rather the motivation of local cells working autonomously with periodic coordinated attacks seems to be religious purification with incredibly long term goals coupled with a separatist movement that resents the perceived lack of respect from the Thai government. There is a perception of neglect and a sense of injustice due to the killings and heavy handedness of the Thai military that has fostered fear and alienation which allows the insurgents to manipulate the locals.
Many insurgents report that they don’t believe they will be successful in their lifetimes. The panel agreed that there doesn’t seem to be an endgame to the violence as long as “Bangkok” refuses to let go of the mind set of assimilation and apologize for the government’s mistakes. And who believes that will ever happen?
Six days of U.S./Thai trade talks in Chiang Mai has resulted in a stalemate with the help of 10,000 protesters…an alliance of 11 groups who are resisting trade liberalization. They are not ready, says the director of the AIDS Success Foundation, for expensive drugs caused by prolonged protection of intellectual property rights that will only benefit a few businesses instead of the Thai people. Other activists and academics have expressed grave concern that liberalized trade would open Thailand to foreign firms that would bring western values that would destroy the already endangered Thai way of life.
The irony was stark, however, when in the same week the Bangkok Post featured a glossy full page picture of Thailand’s beloved “Jazzy King” playing his saxaphone…celebrating six decades during which he has inspired, entertained and encouraged Thai people. He plays on Saturday nights at Klai Kingworld Palace on Hua Hin Beach south of Bangkok where the 78 year old king lives. He learned to play while he was studying as a student in Lucerne Switzerland. He and his band plays Dixieland, New Orleans and Big Band music and has jammed with the likes of Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa and Lionel Hampton. He sometimes composes spontaneously while playing…an aide writing the notes while he blows.
Laughingnomad 