International news briefs
Sri Lankan left demonstrates against the war
COLOMBO — On May 25, 3000 people participating in a demonstration called by the People's Liberation Front, the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) and the Muslim United Liberation Front were attacked by police. Among the demands of the rally were: Defeat the government's attempt to hide behind the war [against the Tamil people] and bury democratic rights!, Solve the national problem with equality and democracy! and Roll back oppressive regulations!
Police used chemical water and tear gas, and baton-charged the crowd. Dr Vickramabahu Karunarathne, general secretary of the NSSP, said: "Our demonstration will be a slap in the face of the government that demands children for the armed forces and workers' wages for military expenditure. The NSSP has always campaigned against the government's insane war ... we support a solution based on equality, autonomy and the right of Tamil self-determination."
Arise, Sir Thabo
South African President Thabo Mbeki, in London on May 18, was awarded an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George in a 20-minute audience with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
Mbeki was in London to discuss bilateral relations with British PM Tony Blair as well as the political crisis in Zimbabwe. Blair and Mbeki said they agreed that the farm occupations by Mugabe's supporters should end, and that Britain would then resume funding a limited land reform program based on the "willing seller, willing buyer" principle. Blair praised Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" with Mugabe over the land issue.
Britain agreed to provide more "help" towards "modernising" South Africa's defence forces. The British Metropolitan Police will also establish a £500,000 training program to train 100 officers from South Africa's elite police unit, known as the Scorpions.
Amnesty reveals US torture
GENEVA — On May 10, Amnesty International presented a report to the UN Committee Against Torture criticising the United States for increasingly brutal police measures against crime suspects, saying the use of pepper spray and stunning devices as punishment constitutes torture.
Washington ratified a convention outlawing torture in 1994. Since then, the "increasingly punitive approach toward offenders [in the US] has continued to lead to practices which facilitate torture or other forms of ill-treatment", Amnesty said. The report pointed to long-term isolation of prisoners and incarceration of asylum-seekers in "cruel and degrading conditions", and noted that the rising prison population contributed to widespread ill-treatment of inmates and that police brutality is particularly directed at racial and ethnic minorities.