Friday, September 28, 2007

Where did this happen?

Police rough-up a group of Burmese demonstrators in Australia. The photo and report are from The Sydney Morning Herald. Money quote (via New Mandala):
A protest of about 60 Burmese pro-democracy activists were met with heavy police presence at a protest outside the Burmese embassy in Canberra this afternoon. Chanting “we want democracy” and “free Burma”, the group of mainly older Burmese-Australian men first sat in an area across a closed road from the Burmese embassy, then sat down on the closed road. About 30 federal police officers and two police dogs tried to disperse the group. One protester was thrown to the ground and taken away. Protester Thomas Soe said police had been heavy handed. “All we wanted to do was a peaceful demonstration, all we wanted to do was stand in front of the embassy,” he said. Police denied they had been heavy-handed. The protest then marched to the Chinese embassy, where protesters yelled: “Chinese government, shame on you”.
I blogged about the heavy handedness of Australia's finest last month at APEC, and something quite disturbing I saw on the streets of Melbourne gave me a view into Australia as a police state.

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