NIGERIA - WHAT'S NEW?
The hanging of nine dissidents by the
Nigerian military dictatorship is nothing
new. The butchers that rule Nigeria have
used judicial executions in the past and
continue to execute political activists as
we speak. These butchers continue to
rule because they are bankrolled by a
number of transnational oil corporations.
Shell is the principal but not the only
player in this sordid little saga
Nigerian workers have been involved in
actions against the Nigerian military
dictatorship for many years. The hanging
of the Ogoni Nigerian playwright and
eight fellow Ogoni activists is just one of
many extra judicial and judicial
executions that the Nigerian military
dictatorship has been involved in.
Nigerians are sick and tired of having
their affairs controlled by transnational
corporations. They are sick and tired of
seeing countries like Britain trading with
Nigeria. They are sick and tired of the
lukewarm slaps on the wrists that this
renegade regime has been threatened
with.
The current Nigerian military dictatorship
could be brought down overnight. Trade
should be suspended with this rogue
State, and every major transnational
corporation that deals with Nigeria should
be subject to a world wide boycott of its
products. This boycott could begin with
Shell. Individuals should seriously
consider boycotting corporations that give
this regime its life blood, oil and natural
gas dollars. The Ogoni are just a small
part of a mass movement that wants to see
the destruction of the Nigerian military
dictatorship. The suspension of Nigeria
from the commonwealth is too little too
late. The disintegration of this rabid
regime will only occur when trade with
Nigeria is boycotted by the rest of the
world and the natural gas and oil pipeline
that is the current military dictatorship's
pipeline to the Nigerian national bank is
cut.
VICTORIA'S POLICE FORCE -
THEY MAY BE CORRUPT...
...BUT THEY CAN SHOOT STRAIGHT
The death of yet another person in
Victoria as a consequence of yet another
police shooting highlights the fact that the
Victorian Police Force is out of control.
As the Chief Commissioner attempts to
weed out a few hundred corrupt Victorian
Police, the police force goes on its merry
way shooting dead mentally ill and
intoxicated Victorians. The death of
Helen Merkle a twenty seven year old
Papuan New Guinea woman in Wodonga
as a consequence of yet another police
shooting highlights the culture of shoot
first ask questions later that pervades the
whole Victorian Police Force.
Thirty one people have died as a result of
police shootings in Victoria since 1986.
Eighteen since 1990. In New South
Wales a State with a large population and
a higher crime rate, New South Wales
Police have only been responsible for the
deaths of three people since 1990. There
is something inherently wrong with a
police force that continues to kill mentally
ill and intoxicated individuals who are
allegedly armed with knives, baseball
bats, cross bows and small tomahawks.
When you realise that less than ten
percent of those people who were killed
by police had firearms you realise the
extent of the problem in the Victorian
Police Force.
What's even more alarming than the
deaths of these people is the police forced
and government public relations machine
that is swung into action as soon as
somebody is killed by police. The public
relations garbage that has spewed from
the mouth of Pat McNamara the Victorian
Government Police Minister, the Police
Association, the police media liaison unit
@nd the Chief Commissioner himself have
to be seen and heard to be believed. If we
are to believe all these august people
Helen Merkle's death was unavoidable, it
was justifiable self-defense. Hearing Pat
McNamara you'd think the coroner had
investigated the case and had made a
finding that the police killing of Helen
Merkle was justifiable.
Well it looks like Victorian police have
finally killed the wrong person. Helen
Merkle was not someone who had little or
no social support, she was not someone
who had a long histoly of mental illness,
she was not a known criminal. @ fact she
was a mother with a young child in
Wodonga and two children in Papua New
Guinea. She was a relative of the Papua
New Guinea High Commissioner in
Canberra and had many Senior Papua
New Guinea politicians as fAends. As the
Papua New Guinea government calls for
an independent inquiry the acting Premier
Pat McNamara is trying to stall a
thorough ongoing investigation into the
Victorian Police Force. Police in Victoria
are killing with impunity, the normal
structures that supposedly protect citizens
from police do not seem to apply in
Victoria. As long as the Victorian police
are allowed to carry firearms Victorians
will continue to be killed by their police
force. No amount of retraining will
change the shoot to kill philosophy that
seems to pervade the Victorian Police
Force.
STOP PRESS
Rnother Uictorian citizen IlJas
shot dead by Uictorian Police
in the early hours of
wednesday morning uJhen
another of the Uictorian
police's famous stake-outs
went horribly @rong.
I rrespectiue of luhat the
Coroners Court says about
their procedures they don't
seem to hear.
FREEDOM PRESS
http://www.lglobal.com/TAO/Freedom