Global briefs
BOUGAINVILLE: Bougainville public servants have threatened to stage a sit-in protest that would involve 3,000 public servants if the provincial administrative structure is not put into action by April 2. "Public servants in Bougainville continue to serve under deplorable conditions and to continue to delay the implementation of the approved restructure is injustice to them', said Mr Noro, Public Employees' Association Bougainville branch president. "The union feels that there has been a breach of labour laws, not merely arising from contractual obligations but also under the constitution relating to the employer and employee relationships, governing aspects of wage reviews and the determination and other aspects of employment conditions", Mr Noro said. The union leader pointed out that the current Bougainville structure was outdated — "Public servants in the administration continue to occupy and act on positions they last won in 1988, before the Bougainville crisis".* * * SOUTH AFRICA: The South African Communist Party condemned and expressed its concern about a shooting that took place outside the Cape Town house of former President Nelson Mandela. The SACP passed condolences to the family of the man who died from the shooting. The SACP warned criminal/s that the people of South Africa would not be intimidated and that they would do everything in their power to defend Mandela and everything that his life represents.* * * UGANDA: King Solomon I of the Bunyoro kingdom in western Uganda plans to sue the British government for 3.4 trillion pounds compensation for Victorian colonial terrorism. "The British burned down our houses, destroyed crops and introduced syphilis to my people", he said. "They were responsible for the deaths of 2.4 million people. Moreover they stole my grandfather's cattle and ivory. It is not what we expected from civilised people. What they did then is no different to what al- Qaida is doing today", the king said.* * * BRITAIN: The British Trade Union Council warned that employers were increasingly monitoring the whereabouts of workers through signals from their mobile phones. Bosses also eavesdrop on telephone calls, time toilet breaks, monitor e-mails and Internet use and use close-circuit television and hidden cameras. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber warned that this not only breaches workers' rights to privacy, it is also bad for business. "Big Brother bosses do not get the best out of their employees", he said. "Staff who are being snooped on are less productive and less healthy." He also attacked "an unregulated boom in intrusive and ineffective drug, drink and health testing of employees". Speaking for the civil rights organisation Liberty, Barry Hugill said: "The use of this technology to track the movements of workers is reprehensible. It's a very scary development".* * * JAPAN: Japan has paid $95 million dollars to Iraqi tribesmen to have their contingent in Iraq protected from attacks.