Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Detentions re G8

The Northampton Massive | 04.07.2008 11:36 | G8 Japan 2008 | Globalisation | Repression | World

Lates from reuters re people detained in Japan

SAPPORO, Japan (Reuters) - Twenty South Korean activist farmers have been detained by Japanese immigration and expect to be deported, a spokesman for the group said on Friday, in further signs of growing security jitters from the host nation ahead of a G8 summit.

(Advertisement)
Japan has so far detained and questioned around 40 people, including journalists and academics, although many have been allowed to enter the country after several hours.

Police said one South Korean man was arrested after he shoved an airport immigration officer's head into a wall during questioning, angered by staff stopping him from taking pictures.

"They are classifying people unilaterally, without sufficient information or standards," Hong Hyung-suk, spokesman for the Korean Peasants League told Reuters by telephone from New Chitose Airport, where the group was being held. "We are not terrorists."

Some of the South Korean activist farmers, who also belong to the international Via Campesina peasant movement, have been arrested in the past and participated in protests against the World Trade Organisation in Hong Kong in 2005, representatives of the groups said.

Immigration officials in Sapporo were not immediately available for comment. Officials have previously confirmed that some people had been detained but declined to comment further.

Japan, fearful of violence during the July 7-9 G8 summit, has deployed 21,000 police officers on the northern island of Hokkaido, where the meeting will be held.

Police in Sapporo, the island's capital, conducted a security training exercise on Friday morning, stopping traffic and people as VIP black cars passed through the central streets of the city.

The security budget is some 30 billion yen (141.8 million pounds), topping the 113 million euros (89.5 million pounds) spent at the last summit in Germany.

DETAINED AND QUESTIONED

Other activists detained and questioned by immigration include political scientist Susan George, a vocal critic of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and Lydinyda Nacpil, the Asia-Pacific coordinator for Jubilee South, an advocacy group calling for debt cancellation for poor countries.

In some cases, detentions have stretched for over 10 hours, journalists, activists and academics have said. One academic said this week he was given no food or water for more than 12 hours.

"Japan, citing the G8 summit, has limited visas without specific cause and has insisted on extremely detailed plans from its visitors, making entrance into the country difficult," the G8 Summit NGO Forum, an umbrella group for non-governmental organisations, said in a statement.

"This is robbing us of free speech and the exchange of ideas," it said.

Two other South Korean nationals, one affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, have been deported, Japan's G8 Media Network has said.

Anti-G8 protests have become a fixture of G8 summits. On Sunday, two rallies in Tokyo gathered more than 1,000 people, including anti-capitalists, labour union members and protesters from abroad, such as Spain and South Korea. Eight men were arrested after scuffling with police at one of the rallies.

But tight security and the sheer cost of travelling to the remote site of the summit, at a hilltop luxury hotel in rural Hokkaido, is expected to dampen turnout compared with previous summits.

Demonstrations are anticipated near the summit venue -- where some 1,000-plus protesters are expected to gather in three camp sites -- and organisers of a peace rally in Sapporo ahead of the summit hope to draw 10,000 participants.

(Additional reporting by Jung Heejung and Yuriko Nakao in Sapporo and Edwina Gibbs in Tokyo; Editing by Brent Kininmont and Alex Richardson)

The Northampton Massive

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech