World Tour - Protests in China

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It, WORLD Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

ARGENTINA PROTESTS— Today’s World Tour begins with protests in Argentina.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Thousands of right- and left-wing demonstrators crowded the streets of Buenos Aires on Saturday to protest the country’s economic struggles.

Argentina is battling with an inflation rate of more than 60 percent, and spiking gas imports are draining already weak foreign reserves.

The government struck a $45 billion debt deal with the International Monetary Fund earlier this year, but many have blamed the agreement for tighter economic policies.

Juan Carlos Giordano belongs to the Socialist Left party.

GIORDANO: [Speaking in Spanish]

He called on authorities to stop all foreign debt payments and invest instead in health, wages, and education. The Saturday protests coincided with the country’s Independence Day celebrations.

CHINA PROTESTS — We head over to China, where demonstrations are far less common.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the People’s Bank of China in the central city of Zhengzhou to march against corruption.

Four banks in the province froze all cash withdrawals since mid-April due to the country’s economic downturn. That left thousands of small savers without access to their funds.

Protesters accused local officials of working with banks to suppress protests. Some participants said security guards beat and wounded some of them.

Responding to the protests, provincial authorities said they will start releasing the funds, beginning Friday.

SEBRENICA GENOCIDE MEMORIAL— Next, to Bosnia.

AUDIO: [Prayers at the cemetery]

Thousands of Bosnians showed up at a memorial cemetery on Monday to mark the 27th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide.

This year, families buried 50 more victims after finding their scattered remains across mass graves in Srebrenica. They include three teenage boys.

The anniversary marks the 10 days of killings in 1995, when Serbian forces slaughtered more than 8,000 Bosniaks. Many of them were young boys.

Emir Suljagic lost his father and brother in the killings.

SULJAGIC: Every next anniversary is somehow more difficult than the previous one, the time takes its toll, and it's not an easy day, I can tell you that much. it's a.. it's not an easy time of the year for any of us, myself included.

ANGOLA FORMER PRESIDENT — We wrap up today in the Central African nation of Angola, where residents mourn former President José Eduardo dos Santos, who died Friday. He was 79.

AUDIO: [Archive of crowds cheering Dos Santos]

Dos Santos assumed office in 1979, four years after Angola gained independence from Portugal. He led a Marxist, single-party government before adopting democracy in 2008. He stepped down in 2017 due to his health.

AUDIO: [Streets of Luanda]

Dos Santos was rarely seen in public but gained a legacy as an iron-fisted leader. He retained control during the country’s civil war, and also distributed the nation’s wealth between army generals and political rivals to ensure their loyalty.

Angola observed five days of national mourning that ends today.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

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