Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Marlboro, Johannesburg, South Africa - Violence broke out again between defiant squatters and the Red Ants - red-overall clad security guards employed by the sheriff to enforce court orders. The squatters have been living in a complex of 16 different occupied factory buildings since 1998. The government has offered them temporary housing in an effort to end the conflict but those who remain say they will believe it when they see it. Authorities have thus far been unable to show the temporary housing promised. In the meantime nearly 1000 residents have blockaded roads with burning cars and tires to keep out the Red Ants. There have been a number of confrontations in which the security forces used stun grenades and rubber bullets leading to the hospitalization of some of the participants.