Norm Dixon

  • Nigerian union leaders released

    Oil workers' union leaders Milton Dabibi and Frank Kokori were among nine prominent political prisoners ordered released by the new Nigerian military strongman, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, on June 16. Others to be released include

  • Water giant threatens opponents

    Biwater, the huge British-owned corporation that has been named the "preferred bidder" for the Nelspruit's water and waste services, in South Africa's Mpumalanga province, is threatening legal action against opponents of privatisation

  • 'Zimbabwe's Suharto must go'

    'Zimbabwe's Suharto must go'Inspired by the fall of Indonesian dictator Suharto, thousands of student demonstrators on May 28 marched through the streets of the capital, Harare, to demand the resignation of Zimbabwe president

  • UPNG students boycott classes

    UPNG students boycott classesAngry University of Papua New Guinea students on May 22 launched a class boycott and a blockade of the Port Moresby campus in response to a proposed restructure of the university. Students claim the

  • Peace deal splits Bougainville independence movement

    Peace deal splits Bougainville independence movementA "permanent and irrevocable cease-fire" between the Bougainville Interim Government/Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BIG/BRA), the Bougainville Transitional Government and its

  • UN ignored Rwanda genocide warnings

    In 1994, the United Nations was warned of the Rwandan Hutu chauvinist government's impending genocide against the Tutsi minority and anti-tribalist Hutus three months before it began in April — yet ordered its "peacekeepers" in the

  • Nigerian police attack anti-Abacha protest

    Nigerian riot police killed at least seven people protesting against dictator General Sani Abacha on May 1 in the Oyo state capital of Ibadan. In the days following the shootings, prominent opposition politicians, including a former

  • 'We can run the country without employers'

    The Danish parliament voted on May 7 to impose a settlement to bring the country's private sector general strike, which began on April 27, to an end. Social Democrat prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said the strike for a shorter

  • Nigerian dictatorship takes Clinton's hint

    Encouraged by statements from US President Bill Clinton during his Africa tour in March, Nigerian dictator General Sani Abacha has moved rapidly to scuttle the country's already discredited "transition to democracy". On April 21, the

  • Zimbabwe cops shoot student

    Zimbabwe cops shoot studentRiot police shot and seriously wounded a University of Zimbabwe student in Harare on April 23. The shooting followed two days of escalating tension as students and staff attempted to protest against the

  • 40,000 strike in Fiji

    Fiji's trade unions on April 23 staged a widely observed general strike to protest against the government's attempts to impose wage restraint and its refusal to stem the loss of jobs associated with economic "restructuring". More than

  • Activist slams 'recolonisation' of Pacific

    Activist slams 'recolonisation' of PacificPowes Parkop is general secretary of Melanesian Solidarity (Melsol), an organisation that unites environmental, land rights, student and urban poor community activists throughout Papua New