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INDIGENOUS ARRESTS
Seventy-two landless people and land activists
were yesterday arrested in the first signs of the South African
government's crackdown on demonstrations during the World Summit of
Sustainable Development.
Those arrested include most of the Gauteng leadership of the Landless
Peoples' Movement, a national movement of poor and landless people
struggling to access land reform across South Africa.
Police also arrested top leaders of the National Land Committee, a
national network of 10 land right non-governmental organizations working
with poor and landless communities struggling to access land reform across
South Africa. The arrests followed a peaceful march and demonstration by
4000 landless people from more than eight different informal settlements
around Johannesburg, which are currently facing apartheid style forced
removals.
The marchers wanted forced relocation from the homelands stopped and an
end to alleged brutal campaign of terror being waged by the police against
poor and landless people in the province.
The South African government has made it clear that it will not tolerate
people marching to embarrass the government by exposing the country's
poverty and landlessness while the eyes of the world is focused on the
country.
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