Transterra Media

Sanaa, Yemen
August 29, 2014

Tens of thousands of Yemeni followers of the Shia'a Houthi group, massed in the country's capital Sana'a in a protest calling for the government to reverse a decision on cutting fuel subsidies and resign. The rally is part of an ongoing demonstration that has been going on for over a week and is growing in size. The Houthis are a powerful force in Yemen and have been fighting for years for more representation for their Shia'a sect in the northern part of the majority Sunni nation.

SOUNDBITE : Yemeni Protester (Man, Arabic, 25 sec) 'We are protesting against the government's decision to lift subsidies on oil derivatives, and making it harder to the people to buy petroleum products. We will remain protesting peacefully until our demands are fulfilled, and they will be achieved with God's will (Inchallah)'

Bangkok Anti-Government Protest

bangkok

By Michael Biach

10 Apr 2014

Bangkok Anti-Government Protest

View from East Ukraine 4

Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

By lordcob

18 Feb 2014

Empty tents installed by the Yanukovich's Party of Regions in front of the city hall.

Students Protest in Venezuela

By Carlos Hernandez

18 Feb 2014

Students go out to the streets to protest against the government in Caracas, Venezuela.

A View From East Ukraine

Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

By lordcob

17 Feb 2014

Following the river Dnepr, 500 km east of Kiev, sits the city of Dnepropetrovsk, with its million inhabitants. Famous for a forbidden city during the Soviet time where rockets and nuclear weapons were built, now, remaining heavily industrial, it is known as one of the strongholds of Ukrainian President Yanukovich in Eastern Ukraine.

Regardless of this fact, hundreds of protesters meet every day in Europe Square to show their support to the occupation of Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), the main square in the capital, which has been occupied since end of November to protest the turn of Yanukovich on the signature of an association agreement in Vilnius, an important step toward European integration. Pictured in the following photo essay are unique shots of the people of this eastern city, both those who support the protest movement in Kiev and those who are against it.

ARTICLE:

Following the river Dnepr, 500 km east of Kiev, sits the city of Dnepropetrovsk with its million inhabitants. Famous for being, during Soviet time a forbidden city, where rockets and nuclear weapons were built, now, remaining heavily industrial, is one of the strongholds of Ukrainian president Yanukovich in Eastern Ukraine.

Regardless of this fact, hundreds of protesters meet every day in Europe square to show their support to the occupation of Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), the main square in the capital, which has been occupied since end of November to protest the turn of Yanukovich on the signature of an association agreement in Vilnius, an important step toward European integration. What was initially a demand to reconsider the agreement, became a firm request to Yanukovich to resign. Maxim Goshovski, 25, just came back from Kiev, where he brought support, together with 50 other fellow citizens who live in a tent on Maidan, during the violent riots of Hrushevskoho Street.

The protests in Dnepropetrosk were more peaceful, reminding the ones in Kiev during the month of december. Actions included picketing of some of Yanukovich properties, such as the supermarket chain Epi-Centre. During the weekend, the number of protesters grew to several hundred people, with women and children marching towards the City Hall and handing flowers to the riot policemen who surrounded it. To quantify their absolute number is difficult because, as Vitaly Fylovyat, 24, says, the people in Dnepropetrovsk do not like to share their opinion in general, and now there is definitely fear to express them. Stepan Klimov, 37, normally a IT manager and acting as a blogger for the protest, was brought into a tent and beaten. “ They were "Titushkas" (government hired thugs), they saw on which side I was and they wanted to give me a lesson,” he said.

In the Regional Library every week, Anton Rusanov, 28, gathered several NGOs to guide a discussion about the current situation to try to prevent a further radicalization of the conflict. “We are not pro-government but we would like to have a stable one, our way of influencing politics is through dialogue, not through riots and disorders,” he said. The reciprocal mistrust on both sides is growing and they both accuse the media to be biased. Anton showed the listeners a video of the main moment of violence in Dnepropetrovsk, the day when a group of anti-government “Ultras” tried to break into the City Hall, in which a person is wildly beaten by a group of masked men. “As you can see anti-government supporters show only the last part of the video, without the beginning in which a large number of anti-government radicals are slowly gathering together with peaceful anti-Maidan protesters and nobody, even policemen, did anything.”

Egor Slavianov, 25, a trainer expert in Mixed Martial Arts, raised his hand and said that the chairman was right, he was personally there with his group of friends, which he calls the People Militia (Narodonoe Opolcenie): “Our group is for maintaining peace and security in our city, we are not pro-government or with the right sector, we are neutral but we don’t want to have violence in the streets and we try to prevent it, that’s why we tried to stop armed people from mixing with the peaceful protesters. We later helped defending the city hall. People often called us Titushki but we are not. There are Titushki and the government uses them as provocators, but we don’t like them too.”

This kind of support is particularly encouraged by the government and the Mayor of Dnepropetrovsk, Ivan Kulichenko, through a City Hall decree, that formalized these sportsmen militias. There are now 82 different formations who have rights to ask for documents, bring people to the police stations and use any kind of weapons except guns.

The situation fell uncertain and in Eastern Ukraine, the richest part of the country, where most of the large industries are located, many factory workers support Yanukovich. One of these supporters are Eughenyi Valdimirovich, 60, a recently retired employee of a large mechanical factory, who explained, “It makes more sense to us to have an economical relationship with Russia, we sell to them and we also get their energy to run our factories.” There is a large fear that these obsolete factories would have to close down, if entering in Europe, because they wouldn’t comply with European ISO standards. “I really don’t like what is happening in Kiev”, Eughenyi continues, “the protesters wants to be in Europe without using any European method at all and we need stability, not chaos”.

Pavlov Vasily, 42, a university technician, is definitely for a strong government: “If I will not vote for Yanukovich again, it will be for the way he handled this protests. In Europe they would have never allowed people to occupy the main square of the country, it would have been quickly repressed. Yanukovich is a self-made man, our American dream, and yes, he has his own interest and he acts like an oligarch. But isn’t it the Italian ex-president Berlusconi an oligarch too? But people still vote for him and in a democracy you should respect this. I don’t like to live in an unstable situation like and if safety come at the price of freedom then I really wouldn’t mind if Ukraine would be like Belarus.”

Venezuela Student Protests

By Manaure Quintero

12 Feb 2014

In the protests that have turned violent in Venezuela, at least 10 people were killed and more than a hundred were injured, as thousands continue to take to the streets, asking the Venezuelan Government to release students who were detained during protests in San Cristobal City. People are demonstrating against the government's crackdown on dissent, restrictions of freedom of speech and the arrest of Leopoldo Lopez.

Euromaidan Protests

By Irakli Dzneladze