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"The worsening food crisis is the fault of the neo-liberal policies of imperialist globalization which incessantly oppress the peasants who till the land to feed the world. Asian farmers have long been victims of the liberalization of agriculture, but the current crisis manifested by the escalating price of staples and other commodities and the decrease of food production across Asia and other parts of the world attests to these crimes," stated Biplab Halim, Chairperson of the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC).
Continuous rising prices of food and increasing graph of poverty and unemployment have driven the fishers of coastal areas of Pakistan up to the wall. They are compelled to live but to live hunger and poverty ridden lives. Keeping in view the fishers' marginalized state, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum announced to observe a hunger week which started on 26th May and ended on 31st June, 2008.
The continued arrest of indigenous community leaders by the police, acting in collusion with plantation companies in Sarawak must stop immediately. The recent arrests of five community leaders in the Kg. Wawasan area with trumped up charges organized by the company with the support of the police reflects the high handedness in which plantation companies violate the native customary rights to land by the indigenous communities.
Three harrowing days after they were hijacked by the police, and with their passports confiscated, the 15 international activists attending the WORA events in Jakarta, Indonesia to highlight the threats of genetically engineered (GE) rice, were today freed, but asked to leave Indonesia within three days.
After being hijacked yesterday by the Jakarta Police for attending a people's demonstration against GE (genetic engineered) rice outside the Ministry of Agriculture, and then being interrogated at the Immigration Office for nine hours, the 15 detained overseas activists were finally released at 3 am today but without their passports.
Fifteen people from six countries were arrested today in Jakarta (Indonesia) by Polda Jaya (the Police Corps of Jakarta Raya Territory) for participating in a peaceful people's gathering to voice their protest against GM rice and call for saving the diversity of local rice to ensure people's food security.
On March 4 to 6, 2008, a Training and Workshop of Policy Advocacy on Food Sovereignty and Food Safety will be held in Khustai National Park, UIaanbaatar in Mongolia. The training will be organised by the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PANAP), People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) and Center for Human Rights and Development (CHRD) in Mongolia.
Tirupati, India - An International fact-finding mission, comprising eminent civil society representatives from Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and India, visited Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh (India) and expressed great concern over the displacement and loss of livelihoods of poor and landless tribal communities in those districts due to construction of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and expansion of a Port in Krishnapatnam.
Andhra Pradesh (Khammam district) - Chhattisgarh (Dantewada and Bastar district) states share a common boundary which is densely covered by reserve forests. The main dwellers of this forest are Gothikayas and koyas.
On behalf of a few concerned civil society organizations and individuals, an independent international fact finding mission (IIFFM) went to Nandigram to investigate the human rights violations which occurred there in connection with the attempted land acquisition for the proposed chemical hub to be set up by the Salim Group from Indonesia.
Geneva, Switzerland-Peasant leaders and activists conducted a protest action in front of World Trade Organization (WTO) building in Geneva on the first day of the 'Global Review of Aid for Trade' to show their opposition to the Aid for Trade package being peddled by the WTO now since December 2005.
Several villagers in Nandigram, mostly women and children, died when the armed goons of CPIM (the ruling party in West Bengal, India) opened fire on a peaceful rally of the villagers on 11 November 2007.
Manila, Philippines – The Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) condemns the police that brutally fired tear gas and dispersed lawyers protesting yesterday against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule. The emergency decree aimed primarily at heading off any Supreme Court challenge to Musharraf prolonging his eight-year rule since he took power in a 1999 coup.
The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) clarified that the RP-China agreements does not merely mean the leasing of land to the Chinese but massive eviction and displacement of farmers from their lands. With the computation of the group placing 1.5 hectares as the basic land plot for a peasant family, at 1.3 million peasants would be evicted from the lands they are tilling to give way to 2 million hectares targeted by the Macapagal-Arroyo regime for the RP-China deal.
Kollathur Villagers, supported by Tamil Nadu Dalit Women's Movement (TNDWM), obtained one big step forward to get justice regarding the problems around an industrial aqua farm which is just next to the village. The false cases filed by F. Bartholomew, the owner of Chinna Aqua, against villagers were acquitted by Justice Shanti at the judicial court at Maduranthagam, on 15th Sept 2007.
An International Fact-Finding Mission (IFFM) today showcased the struggle of the farmers in Central Mindanao University (CMU) as a confirmation of the failure of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to redistribute land to farmers; and joined the call for the junking or non-extension of the “bogus” program beyond 2008.
Rural Life is Key- Don´t trade it away to a corporate agenda
17 May, 2007. Marakkanam -- Members of a fact-finding team, including medical doctors and social activists from the Philippines , India , Malaysia and Bangladesh , concluded a 2-day investigation of human rights violations against Dalit villagers protesting against a polluting shrimp farm in Kolathur village, Kancheepuram district.
Resolution to support the movements against the onslaught of imperialist globalization
ROOTS for Equity had organized a Peasant Forum on 18th April 2007 at Caritas Auditorium, Lahore. Approximately 80-90 peasants and activist from NWFP, Punjab and Sindh had attended the forum. Ms Tabassum, Roots for Equity in her welcoming speech spoke on the anti-peoples agenda of the WTO. To make matters worse Pakistan has now joined the Cairns Group, which goes totally against the interests of the small and landless peasants of Pakistan.
(A Statement of the People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) on the World Food Day, October 16)
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