|
State repression intensifies!
by Social Movement Indaba
Sunday August 25, 2002 at 02:20 PM
Earlier this
evening (Saturday 24th August) the South African Police attacked
the Freedom of Expression march in Johannesburg,
organised jointly by the Social Movements Indaba (SMI) and
International Forum on Globalisation (IFG). At least three
marchers were injured and a prominent South African filmmaker,
Rehad Desai arrested.
The march
was intended as a public statement of protest against the South
African government’s increasingly brutal repression of those
who would dare voice dissent against the corporate agenda of the
WSSD and government policies that are wreaking such devastation
on the poor. Armed with candles, the several hundred marchers
from all over South Africa and from various corners of the globe,
were proceeding from Wits University (in Braamfontein) to the
Johannesburg Central Prison (John Vorster Square), when the police,
without warning, attacked them with concussion grenades.
In the ensuing
melee, a Canadian activist, Karen Coge, was hit by one of the
grenades and had to be rushed to hospital, suffering from serious
burns. Anti-Privatisation member, Dudu Mphenyeke was also taken
to hospital with a dislocated knee and at least one other marcher
was injured. Several children who had joined the peaceful march
were left in a state of trauma. Desai, who was filming the march,
was arrested for ‘obstructing police operations’ and
hauled off to Hillbrow Police Station where he was charged and
released on R1000 bail. Several internationally renowned anti-globalisation
activists and intellectuals, including Vandana Shiva, Maude Barlow,
Naomi Klein, Tony Clarke and John Saul, were caught up in the
police attack.
After the
attack, marchers regrouped in the street and faced-off against
a small army of heavily armed and aggressive police. March leaders
attempted to reason with the police to allow the march to proceed,
to no avail. The police responded by indicating that they were
prepared to forcibly arrest everyone. After a spirited street
rally, marchers peacefully dispersed.
The events
of this evening are only further confirmation of the ever-narrowing
space in the ‘new’ South Africa, for the exercise of
the basic constitutional and human rights to freedom of expression
and assembly. If not before, it should now be crystal clear that
the South African government is hell-bent on smashing legitimate
dissent by whatever means they deem appropriate, including attacking
peaceful marchers and terrorising children. The ghosts of the
South African past are returning with a vengeance.
The SMI says
again – the South African government is making a serious
mistake if it believes that it can bludgeon into submission, those
who seek to expose the W$$D for the fraud that it is and who oppose
government policies against the poor. The freedoms that so many
South Africans fought so long for will not be given up because
of the arrogance and authoritarianism of a new set of elites.
It is time
for all those who support such freedoms to stand up and be counted.
Silence is the voice of complicity.
Back
to DAWN Ontario homepage
This
page was updated on August 26, 2002
|
