Brics summit: park a hub for protests against Bangladesh, Nigeria, Russia, China
The second day of the summit saw a larger group of activists gather at Innesfree Park with various grievances and demands targeting world leaders
Image: Alaister Russell
Various disgruntled groups and activists took to Innesfree Park on Wednesday to voice their grievances to Brics leaders, such as voting in Bangladesh and China’s crude oil pipeline project.
The 15th Brics summit entered its second day with more activists and civil organisations heading to the park to demonstrate and protest. The park held scores of people waving flags and holding placards while singing and chanting a few kilometres from the Sandton Convention Centre where the summit was being held.
The protesters included the StopEACOP Coalition, a group of climate and environmental activists who protested against China and various Chinese companies for allegedly supporting projects that damage the environment.
The organisation says Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation and the Industrial Commercial Bank of China actively supported projects such as the TotalEnergies crude oil pipeline, which will be the world's longest heated crude oil pipeline. It comes with serious environmental and human rights violations such as forced relocations, inadequate compensation, violence against those who defend such rights, and potential destruction of the ecosystem, said campaign coordinator Zaki Mamdoo.
“The time has come to demand better from this rising global power, urging them to change their approach and prioritise the wellbeing and prosperity of African nations and their citizens, especially frontline communities devastated by the fossil fuel industry.
“This requires that China to reassess its involvement in numerous harmful projects across the continent and adopt a partnership model rooted in the principles of equity, justice, transparency and collective benefit of communities, workers and citizens,” he said.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party called on Brics members to put pressure on their prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. The opposition party demands that Hasina transfer her powers to a neutral caretaker administration to ensure the January general elections are fair after allegations of rigging in the past two elections.
Convener of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in SA, Akim Akhtaruzzaman, accused Hasina of not running a democratic country and demanded that all political parties be involved in the upcoming elections.
Image: Alaister Russell
“There is no freedom of speech, the media are all controlled by the government and people cannot talk against the government. If they do, they will be punished and arrested and in some cases they may be killed by government officials like police.
“All we want is for the government to resign and hand over power to a neutral caretaker government ... and under that government all the major political parties must participate in free and fair elections. Whoever wins will take over,” he said.
Another small group, Nigeria’s Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who are demanding independence again since the Republic of Biafra state was dismantled in 1970, three years after its independence.
The Ukraine Association of SA returned to the park on Wednesday after their initial demonstration on Tuesday. The group hopes state heads will encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine.
Another group marched against the “injustice done to the families of the victims of the Marikana massacre”.
TimesLIVE