[Gipfelsoli Newsletter] Hokkaido

[International Newsletter]

- "Poor people's summit" in Mali urges G8 to deliver promised aid
- Protest statement aginst J5 police suppression
- NGOs protest Japan's entry controls on members prior to G-8 summit
- Hundreds Stopped 4 Kilometers away from G8 Summit
- Anti-G8 protesters are on their way to the G8 Hotel
- G8: Japan at the forefront of global governance
- A lockdown on Hokkaido as police outnumber summit protesters

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"Poor people's summit" in Mali urges G8 to deliver promised aid

The summit of the poor," which is taking place in Katibougou, Mali, has urged
the world's richest countries, currently meeting as the G8 in Japan, to keep
their promises regarding aid to Africa, according to news reaching here. As the
Mali meeting, popularly known as the poor people's summit, entered its first day
Monday, speaker after speaker took as wipe at the G8 leadership, notably
criticizing the world's nations of making grand "announcements" in a bid to
"clear their conscience."

"Gentlemen of the G8, please respect your commitments," Bernard Ouedraogo, who
hails from Burkina Faso, said in remarks that reflected the general sentiment
of the hundreds of participants meeting until Wednesday in this town near
Bamako, in what is seen as a alternative to the "summit of rich."

"I do not want to go into the figures, but remember the development aid that was
promised by these leaders, where is it? Has it materialized? Therefore, it was
empty promise! An empty promise!" said the Ouagadougou-based poor people's
activist.

When the time came for Tahirou Bah, secretary general of the Bamako-based
Non-governmental organization "Movement of the Voiceless," to speak, he took to
the podium largely echoing Ouedraogo's remarks: "I refuse to understand how
democratically elected leaders can fail to abide by their commitments."

"It seems as if the announcements are just made for the purpose of having a good
conscience, that's all. But this situation cannot last. We are going straight
into the wall. There will be a revolution, the poor people will engineer a
revolution," he said.

The leaders of South Africa, Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria,S enegal,
Tanzania, who have been invited to the G8 meeting together with Jean Ping,
chairman of the African Union commission, have all spoken on the need "to honor
promises made during previous summits, before making new ones."

But organizers of the world's poor people summit have so far showed little
enthusiasm and outright pessimism on whether the G8 summit will come out with
tangible benefits for Africa. "We expect nothing from this meeting. They can do
nothing, they do not want to do anything for the continent," Nouhoun Keita, one
of the spokesmen of the meeting, told reporters on the sidelines of the summit.

"They are incapable of generosity. They are incapable of looking the reality in
the face, and it is very unfortunate. It is now up to the southern countries,
the civil societies, the world's peasants to take their responsibilities," said
Barry Aminata Toure, one of the organizers of the Katibougou summit.

"They have been criticizing Mugabe. Yes, yes, Mugabe is not a good model of
democracy. But for us, the presidents of the G8 countries are the Mugabes of
hunger, injustice, and capitalism," said Moctar Diallo, a summit attendant from
Senegal.

On Monday, the G8 leaders were subjected to strong pressure from African
countries to keep their promises on aid. In particular, African countries are
asking the world's richest countries to reaffirm the commitments that were made
at their summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005.

During the summit, which was hosted by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair,
the G8 leaders had agreed to double their annual aid to Africa by 2010 compared
to its 2004 level, estimated at 25 billion dollars.

So far, less than a quarter of 25 billion dollars promised in additional aid has
actually been released to the world's poorest continent, according to official
figures.

Faced with the growing barrage of criticism against the rich countries, there,
nevertheless, were voices emerging at the poor people's summit also pointing an
accusing finger at the responsibility of African leaders.

"We should not expect anything from the rich countries. It is primarily up to us
to ensure the development of our countries. This requires us to first of all
resolve to fight against corruption. It also requires good management of public
wealth," said Oumar Diakite, who is representing Cote d'Ivoire at the summit.

Referring to the political crisis in Zimbabwe, Cote d'Ivoire and elsewhere
around the impoverished continent, the Abidjan-based activist said: "Yes, it is
true that we must fight against global warming, soaring oil prices, the food
crisis, but we must above all fight against bad leadership in Africa."

Source: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90856/6444304.html


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Protest statement aginst J5 police suppression

Challenge the G8 Summit, Peacewalk of 10,000 was done in Sapporo City on July 5.
Various people participated in the rally held in Odori Park, and the walk became
large-scale to reach 5,000 people eventually.

However, police charged the sound demonstration in the peacewalk where people
gather with music thrown from the loading platform of a track build up with
sound systems with extraordinary suppression. Though the peacewalk was
permitted to include sound demonstration where some people get on the loading
platform of the track for manipulating sound systems, four people were arrested
in the situation where riot police and secret officers were mixed up a for
attack in the demonstration.

This suppression that concentrated on sound demonstration done within the range
of the permitted demonstration application is caused by the police violence on
charge of “Violation of the Road Traffic Law”, “Violation of the Sapporo City
demonstration ordinance”, and “crime of obstructing the performance of official
duty”. The arrested are just DJs playing or driving the track, so they have no
reason to be arrested. The Reuter camera person was accused of kicking the
police, but media related personnel, one of eyewitnesses, deny it.

The exerciser of overwhelming violence is the police. For instance, they stopped
the track forcely, broke the window with policeman’s club etc, and dragged out
the driver while hanging him. This situation was exposed as Japanese police
brutality again, through the report of independent media. We denounce
suppression to the sound demonstration by the police, and demand such immediate
releasing of all.

Source: http://j5solidarity.blog116.fc2.com/


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NGOs protest Japan's entry controls on members prior to G-8 summit

TOYAKO, Japan, July 9 (Kyodo) - A forum of nongovernmental organizations on
Wednesday protested over Japan's refusal to allow entry to 20-30 NGO members on
the occasion of the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido, northern Japan.

The 2008 Japan G8 Summit NGO Forum, which was in charge of coordinating NGOs
during the just-concluded summit, issued a statement expressing concern over
Japan's immigration controls which it described as "excessive."

Some 20 to 30 NGO members who arrived in Japan to attend rallies or other events
connected to the G-8 summit were refused entry to the country and there were
cases in which some members were questioned at airports for several hours,
forum officials said.

Several other NGO members had their overseas applications for Japanese visas
rejected, they said.

The police mobilized some 21,000 officers from all of Japan's 47 prefectures to
maintain security at the summit venue in the Lake Toya resort and surrounding
areas in Hokkaido during the leaders' meeting.

NGOs and civic groups held anti-summit rallies and demonstrations every day in
and around the venue during the three-day summit but there were no major
disruptions, due partly to there being fewer participants at the events than
expected, police officials said.

Two days before the summit, four men, including a Reuters cameraman, were
arrested after scuffles with police during a rally staged in Sapporo by various
groups to call for world peace and the elimination of growing gaps between rich
and poor.

A support group for the four held a press conference Wednesday in Sapporo and
called for the release of the arrested men.

They said only the cameraman had been released but that the other three are
still being held.

Source: http://news.aol.com


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Hundreds Stopped 4 Kilometers away from G8 Summit

[Toyoura Camp Press Group]

Press Release July 8th 2008

    * More actions tomorrow at camps

Hundreds of Japanese and international activists walked today from Toyora
Protest Camp towards the G8 summit at Lake Toya, before being stopped by the
police. The march, which proceeded peacefully for 20 kilometers, was surrounded
by police throughout the duration and stopped 4 kilometers away from the hotel
where the Summit is held. Demonstrators are calling for an end to the G8
meetings, charging that the leaders of the eight richest countries make
decisions that affect the whole world, yet are fundamentally unaccountable to
the poor of the world. The march occurred simultaneously with another march
that left from the other two Protest Camps surrounding the summit.

More anti-G8 actions originating from the Protest Camps are planned for
tomorrow, to be announced shortly.

“I work with day laborers and homeless in Tokyo. I realized those neoliberal
policies of the G8 are connected with the problems the people I work with
face”, said Chilco Yasuda, a 25 year old Japanese activist. “That is why I came
here to protest today.”

“Every year, G8 leaders make promises that they consistently ignore. Two years
ago it was about aid to Africa, this year it is about reducing carbon
emissions. These broken promises are the result of systemic problems, stemming
from the undemocratic character of the G8 meetings,” said Yosi Hakat, a 22 year
Israeli activist, who came to Japan for the protest.



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Anti-G8 protesters are on their way to the G8 Hotel

[Gipfelsoli Infogroup | Media G8way]

Press Release July 7th 2008

    * Japan: Summit protests are relocating
    * Japanese army is supporting the police

This weekend the anti-G8 summit protests relocated from Sapporo to the vicinity
of Lake Toya where the G8 summit is taking place. Around 1 000 activists are
spread over the protest camps Toyoura, Soubetsu and Da-te. A number of official
demonstrations have been registered against the official G8 summit. The goal is
to get as close as possible to the conference hotel.

Today, hundreds of demonstrators have set off from the camps to Lake Toya. The
“Ainu Mosir” peoples are supporting the Soubestsu Camp demonstrators who for
the large part are Japanese. The Ainu are demanding recognition as the original
inhabitants of the Hokkaido peninsula.

Japanese and international activists based at Camp Toyoura will attempt to
disrupt the G8 summit with blockades and rallies. They will be accompanied by
legal support groups.

26 organizations from around the world have protested against the entry denial
of Korean trade unionists with an open letter. Japanese immigration authorities
had rejected the entry of 23 Koreans into Japan. They had intended to
demonstrate against the trade politics of the G8 as well as US meat imports.

Like during former anti-G8 protests, most recently in Heiligendamm in 2007, the
police forces are supported by the military. Specifically, 4 fighter jets and
AWACS reconaissance are being used, in conjunction with 12 war ships and
patriot rockets.

The internal deployment of the Japanese military is hugely contested. Article 9
of the Japanese Constitution prohibits the use of land, sea and air forces. The
military is not permitted to be used for conflict resolution. In order to
circumvent this legislation, the Japanese “Self Defense Forces” were created.
The air and sea missions at the G8 summit at Lake Toya will be carried out in a
joint deployment of the SDF and the US military. The USA has a number of
military bases in Japan, which has repeatedly sparked protests amongst people
in Japan. Anti-militarist groups are part of this year’s summit protests.

The official justification for the deployment of the military is the defense
against “terrorist air strikes”. However, the Japanese police has had to admit
that there is no evidence of such threats.

“As in Heiligedamm in 2007, there are attempts to further establish the
cooperation between police and military forces. Contrary to all claims it is
clearly political protest that is the target of the military apparatus. We are
deeply critical of the militarization of social conflict”, Hanne Jobst from the
Gipfelsoli Infogroup explained.

Background

    * Demonstrations to the G8-Hotel:
http://japan.indymedia.org/noG8/timeline/?lang=en
    * Protests against the deportation of Korean trade unionists:
http://japan.indymedia.org/newswire/display/4589/index.php
    * Military deployment at the G8 in Japan:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/summit/20080706TDY01303.htm
    * Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution:
http://www.article-9.org/en/index.html
    * General info: http://www.gipfelsoli.org/Home/Hokkaido_2008


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G8: Japan at the forefront of global governance

Restrictions to freedom of speech, arrestations, no issuance of visas, South
Corean trade unionists blocked : Japan is a good cop of globalization !

A delegation of No Vox France has been in Japan since June 28 at the invitation
of No Vox Japan and in the context of the mobilization against the G8. The
delegation took part in four demonstrations against the G8 since its arrival :
in Tokyo, Osaka and Sapporo.

The network denounces the lack of freedom to demonstrate in Japan. The Japanese
authorities tolerate at most processions with a width of three meters (the
corridor normally assigned to the bus), preventing the deployment of our
banners. The processions are separated of not interrupted trafic by a column of
police and important parades are divided into subgroups by cordons of mobile
guards.

It has not always been so and it is the current weakness of the social
movements, due to decades of intense police repression, which explains the
drastic reduction of the scope of civil liberties, despite Japanese are
struggling. The Japanese activists are objectively terrorized by police
arbitrary.

>From this point of view Japan, far from being a particular case, appears to us
at the forefront of global governance and a model that is expected to be
applied in all parliamentary democracies. The freedom to demonstrate is emptied
of its substance at the point of mascarade and it is in fact nothing else but
the mode of “participation” that is to be imposed on citizens in the framework
of “global governance”. In short a Board of Directors (the G8) entirely
submitted to its corporate shareholders and a “lane for expression,” like a bus
lane, where it is forbidden to cross the white line and to disrupt the
“fluidity” of markets and trafic. Both separated by a police lane.

Demonstration against the G8 in Tokyo, 30th of june 2008

Facing with this situation and during the united demonstration in Sapporo on
July 5, 2008, movements have crossed peacefully the white line in spite of the
police cordon and doubled the area set aside for the freedom of expression.
Three Japaneses were arrested, including one member of No Vox Japan, and
equipment seized (truck and sound.) No Vox is fordering immediate release of
those who were arrested under the ridiculous charge of “non-compliance with the
rules on the traffic of cars in the prefecture of Hokkaido because the demo
lorry extended the width of the event with intend and excited demonstrators.
[And] interference with police officers in duty by refusing to comply and stop
the vehicle. ” For these petty infraction, since no law has been violated,
custody can be extended up to 23 days and prisoners may be jailed for months,
what demonstrates once again that Japan has de facto abolished the freedom to
demonstrate while trying to preserve appearances.

In addition, the demonstrators gathered at Toyoura camp “close” to the red zone
as allowed by authorities (20 km away) were blocked from leaving the camp July
7, as they were walking to the station, refusing to walk the 20 km on foot
through the countryside and under rain to reach a allowed point at the border
of the red zone.

In addition, No Vox strongly protests against the blocking of a delegation of
trade unionists from South Korea by the Japanese police and requires them to be
allowed to reach immediately Hokkaido. Similarly, delayed issuance of a visa to
a representative of Kenyan grass-roots organizations who was involved in many
workshops is intolerable.

Generally speaking, we are asking the authorities to publicly assume their
choice to abolish civil liberties rather than to push formal democracy up to
the absurd!

We will support all the associations and organizations in Japan, and in
particular those concerned with daily workers, who mobilize to reclaim an area
of freedom. These facked freedom of speech and limited access to public space
are not worthy of a country defined as democratic. For the Japanese situation
cannot be branded elsewhere as an example of “good governance”, we must provide
unwavering solidarity to all those fighting for freedom of speech in Japan.

No Vox

Toyoura, July 7, 2008

Source: http://www.novox.ras.eu.org/site/spip.php?article152


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A lockdown on Hokkaido as police outnumber summit protesters

DATE, Japan: They descended on this sleepy fishing town, some with faces wrapped
in white bandannas, carrying red banners and shouting slogans.

But the 200 anti-globalization marchers, protesting Tuesday against world
leaders meeting at a lake resort a half-hour away, quickly found themselves
outnumbered by the police, who formed a moving cordon around them, and followed
in half a dozen blue buses and vans.

"This security is really overkill," said one marcher, Bill Hackwell, an antiwar
activist who arrived last week from San Francisco. "We're not trying to crash
the summit's gates."

Japan, host to the leaders of the Group of 8 wealthiest nations on its bucolic
northernmost island of Hokkaido, has deployed one of the heaviest security
operations in the history of the G-8 talks. But whether this has helped the
current meeting escape the violence of previous summit sessions is under
intense debate, with many here criticizing the police presence as excessive,
and overly expensive.

"If violent protesters did not show up, it was because Hokkaido is so far away,"
said Masaaki Ohashi, vice chairman of the 2008 Japan G-8 Summit NGO Forum, a
coalition of Japanese nongovernment groups meeting on the sidelines. "We did
not need all these policemen tromping around Hokkaido."

Indeed, activists say this may be one of the costliest and most heavily guarded
Group of 8 sessions yet. According to the National Police Agency, Japan is
spending ¥30 billion, or about $280 million, for security at the meetings,
which ends Wednesday. That is more than double the $130 million that Germany
spent on security last year when it hosted the previous Group of 8 meeting in
Heiligendamm.

Japan has mobilized about 21,000 police officers, including 16,000 from other
parts of Japan, who have essentially locked down an entire corner of Hokkaido,
an island about the size of Ireland. That is more than last year, when Germany
marshaled about 16,000 police officers and 1,100 soldiers. Japan has also
deployed extra police in Tokyo and other main cities, where they stand guard at
train stations and street corners and patrol roadblocks.

The police presence was heavy around Date (pronounced DA-tay), which is about 20
kilometers, or 12 miles, south of Lake Toya, the summit venue. Groups of police
officers stopped cars for inspection and sealed off roads leading to the summit
site. Offshore, armed patrol boats were visible, a rare sight in a nation that
does not even have a full-fledged military.

So far, Japan has not seen the sort of violent protests that marred some
previous G-8 sessions; tens of thousands clashed with the police and blocked
roads in Germany last year. The largest demonstration here came Saturday, when
about 3,000 mostly Japanese demonstrators marched in Hokkaido's main city of
Sapporo, more than an hour north of Lake Toya. Four people were arrested,
including a photographer for the Reuters news service, after scuffles with the
police.

Anti-globalization activists here say that the smaller, more peaceful protests
reflects Japan's political apathy and the low level of overall violence in this
low-crime society. Still, Japanese officials said they wanted the police
presence just in case, to avoid a repeat of the protests in Germany.

The buildup also seemed to reflect a broader international trend toward
ever-increasing levels of security at global events. Government officials and
international relations experts say that ever-growing security is unavoidable,
because of the threat of violent protests and terrorist attacks.

They say that security started to get particularly tight after 2001, following
demonstrations at a G-8 meeting in Italy that left one protester dead, and the
Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

The tighter security comes as the annual meetings themselves have grown more
elaborate. The first such global meeting, in 1975 in France, was an informal
gathering of six heads of state and a handful of journalists.

This year, in addition to the core group of eight industrialized nations,
including the United States, leaders from 14 developing nations also attended
to discuss issues ranging from climate change to African aid. About 5,000
journalists also attended.

For Japan, the conference was also a chance to raise its global profile at a
time when it faces economic eclipse in Asia from China and India, the region's
rising powers. International relations experts say the security measures were
just Japan's way of being safe instead of sorry.

"Japan just wants to be very thorough and be ready for all contingencies," said
Junichi Takase, a professor of international relations at Nagoya University of
Foreign Studies. "The number of police might seem excessive to Americans or
Europeans, but it makes Japanese feel more secure."

However, there have also been extensive complaints of harsh security practices.
Police officers have singled out non-Asians for questioning at airports, and
ordered hotels across Japan to copy the identification of all non-Japanese.
Japanese immigration authorities have been particularly hard on known foreign
political activists, delaying or barring their entry into Japan ahead of the
talks.

Walden Bello, a sociologist who is a member of Focus on the Global South, an
anti-globalization group, said he was questioned for an hour at a Japanese
airport, after it took him an extra week to get an entry visa. According to
Japanese NGOs, about 30 people have been denied visas or entry at the border,
including 23 South Koreans farm and labor activists who were turned away or
held up by immigration officials last week.

"It is pure harassment," Bello said. "They didn't want us to come."

In Date, protesters say they face a constant and overwhelming police presence. A
few hundred anarchists, anti-capitalists and advocates for Hokkaido's indigenous
Ainu people have held daily protests in the town, with some camping nearby.

While the police kept them getting too close to the summit site, on Monday they
said they got as far as the edge of Lake Toya. In the distance, on the lake's
other side, they said they could see the large white hotel where leaders were
meeting, but could only yell their slogans across the wide blue waters.

One protester, an anarchist from Sapporo in a metal-studded leather jacket and
rainbow-colored Mohawk, who gave his name only as Yoh, said that the heavy
police presence was not a deterrent because it was common at all protests in
Japan.

"They don't want us to infect locals with our radical ideas," he said of the
police encircling the group.

But residents who watched the procession said that the protesters and the police
- and even the summit meeting itself - were all equally unwelcome.

Shoichi Igara, 71, a scallops fisherman, griped that the protesters were scaring
schoolchildren, while security measures prevented him from going to sea at the
height of the scallops season.

"It's all just a hassle," he said. "I just wish they'd all leave."

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/08/business/security.php