Norm Dixon

  • Bougainville, mercenaries swung PNG elections

    Disgust at Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan's plan to use South African mercenaries to crush the people of Bougainville led to his heavy defeat in the general election, held between June 14 and 28. PNG's 2.3 million

  • South Africans strike against privatisation

    South Africans strike against privatisationThousands of workers employed by local government in Johannesburg and Pretoria staged a one-day strike on July 1 to oppose privatisation. The strike was called by the South African

  • Torture by UN 'peace keepers'

    Torture by UN 'peace keepers'Italian television on June 6 broadcast photographs of Italian troops torturing detainees during the US-led United Nations "Operation Restore Hope" occupation of Somalia in 1993. The photographs,

  • Two million strike in South Africa

    More than 2 million South African workers participated in a general strike on June 2 in support of demands for better conditions of employment. The strike was called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and

  • US blackmails shattered Congo

    Thirty-two years of US-backed dictatorship have left Congo (Zaire) in a desperate economic and social situation. The personal wealth of exiled tyrant Mobutu Sese Seko is estimated to be as high as $10 billion, almost equivalent to

  • Congo: Tshisekedi supporters whip up chauvinism

    Seemingly oblivious to the fact that Laurent Kabila's Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (ADFL) achieved more in the struggle against the Mobutu dictatorship in eight months than the Kinshasa-based

  • Congo/Zaire: Why the west is alarmed

    "We are starting the second phase of our revolution — the reconstruction phase", announced the foreign minister in the new government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bizima Karaha, on May 21. Immediately after

  • Victorious rebels condemn western interference

    Victorious rebels condemn western interferenceOn May 17, less than 24 hours after Zaire dictator Mobutu Sese Seko fled the capital leaving his newly appointed parliamentary speaker in charge, the young fighters of the

  • PNG crackdown on activists continues

    The PNG government is continuing its attacks on the country's activist and non-government organisations in retaliation for their role in the defeat of the Chan government's plan to deploy apartheid-linked mercenaries on

  • PNG government cracks down on activists

    Police on May 5 and 6 raided the offices and homes of activists and organisations involved in the Port Moresby demonstrations in March against the Chan government's deployment of mercenaries on Bougainville. Three leading activists

  • Mobutu toughs it out

    With the rebels of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Zaire-Congo (ADFL) just a few days' march from the capital, Kinshasa, dictator Mobutu Sese Seko suddenly left Zaire on May 7 to attend a meeting of