Fw: Papua New Guinea: Police kill student protestors

> Dear Anti-FTAAers and Everyone Else,
> Below is a report about the killing of three student protestors in Papua
> New Guinea. Please reply to the email address below and endorse the
> protest statement in the name or your organization (if possible) or in a
> personal capacity.
> 
> In Solidarity,
> Todd Chretien
> SO Oakland
> 
> Reply-To: intl@dsp.org.au
> Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 19:00:13 +1000
> To: Links <links@dsp.org.au>
> Subject: Condemn PNG Government killing of protesters
> 
> Dear Comrades,
> 
> On Tuesday June 26 the Papua New Guinea government shot dead three
> students and wounded 17 others who were protesting against the IMF and
> World Bank, which is forcing a harsh privatisation regime on the
> country.
> 
> This is a further escalation of the violence against anti-globalisation
> protesters that we we saw in Gothenburg, and demands an immediate
> response from progressive forces around the world.
> 
> Attached below is a protest statement being circulated by the socialist
> youth organisation Resistance condemning the killings, and demanding
> action from the Howard government.
> 
> Please sign and circulate this statement, and return it to Resistance.
> Solidarity pickets are being held in several Australian cities over the
> next few days, and the statement will be distributed there and presented
> to the Australian government and PNG Embassy.
> 
> Please make your anger at this action known to the World Bank and the
> IMF, and to the PNG Government and the PNG Consulate or Embassy in your
> country.
> 
> Comradely greetings,
> John Percy
> National Secretary
> Democratic Socialist Party
> Australia
> intl@dsp.org.au
> 
> ===============
> Protest to:
> PNG Prime Minister
> Sir Mekere Morauta
> mailto:primeminister@pm.gov.pg
> 
> The World Bank
> 1818 H Street, N.W.
> Washington, DC 20433 U.S.A.
> tel: (202) 477-1234
> fax: (202) 477-6391
> feedback@worldbank.org
> 
> International Monetary Fund,
> 700 19th Street, N.W.,
> Washington, D.C. 20431
> Tel: (202) 623-7000
> Fax: (202) 623-4661
> email: publicaffairs@imf.org
> 
> IMF Center
> Tel: (202) 623-6869
> Fax: (202) 623-6562
> email:imfcenter@imf.org
> 
> ===============
> Support anti-IMF and World Bank protestors in Papua New Guinea
> 
> On the early morning of Tuesday 26 of June 2001, PNG police teargassed
> and opened fire on students protesting against the IMF and World Bank,
> resulting in 3 dead and 17 wounded. The violence followed a five day
> peaceful sit-in by up to 3000 University of PNG students, workers, and
> unemployed outside the office of Prime Minister of PNG, Mekere Morauta
> in Waigani, about 10 km from central Port Moresby. The demonstrators
> presented a petition to the Government calling for:
> 
> * Suspend the entire privatisation scheme
> * Completely sever ties with the World Bank and IMF
> * Scrap the customary land registration scheme and
> * If the above are not implemented, the Prime Minister should resign or
> face a more serious protest with detrimental consequences.
> 
> The protestors had remained in order to get a response from the
> government. After the crowd had dwindled to several hundred, police
> closed in and told them to disperse. When they refused, tear gas was
> used and shotguns and automatic weapons fired.
> 
> By first light when news of the shooting spread people streamed into
> Waigana, looting, burning and stoning as they went.
> 
> Shops, schools and government offices were closed for the day, and the
> streets of the capital were deserted except for some students and
> police. Trade unions issued a call for Morauta to step down. They also
> threatened to close ports, shut down the national flag carrier Air
> Niugini and disrupt power supplies.
> 
> The following day, Port Moresby University campus was surrounded by
> police, in order to keep most of the students contained.
> 
> This comes as a result of the IMF and World Banks' instruction to the
> government of PNG to sell off the Papua New Guinea Banking Corporation
> which is the only bank owned by the government, and to be followed by
> the privatisation of the national airline, Air Niugini. Over the past
> three years PNG's water supplies and electricity have been sold off in a
> hope to bail the country out of the economic crisis. However the economy
> of the country has continued to deteriorate.
> 
> These protests follow on from ones earlier this year when students
> marched to Murray barracks to support troops who had seized weapons and
> were also demanding that the World Bank should leave PNG, along with the
> government's Australian advisers.
> 
> Alexander Downer, Australian Foreign Affairs minister has not condemned
> the PNG police for the shootings and he has reaffirmed the Australian
> government's total support for the privatisation program.
> 
> These protests are a clear sign of the rejection of the influence of the
> IMF and World Bank into PNG. As supporters of the fight against these
> international financial institutions, protests have been initiated
> across Australia to actively build solidarity with the PNG activists
> struggle against the IMF and World Bank, and the lethal tactics used by
> police to disperse protestors, resulting in 3 dead and 17 wounded. 
> 
> We demand:
> 
> * IMF and World Bank out of PNG
> * End privatisation
> * Abolish the IMF, WTO and World Bank
> * That the Australian government condemns the violence against
> protestors in PNG
> * That the Australian government gives massively increased unconditional
> aid for development in PNG
> 
> Endorsed by:
> 
> 
> Please send e-mails to Resistance: nationaloffice@resistance.org.au to
> add your name to the statement. For information on when protests will be
> happening call (02) 9690 1230.
> 
> 
>