Paraguay Police & Protesters Clash Amid Strike

ASUNCION, June 22 (Reuters) -

Paraguayan police arrested at least four demonstrators 
and 11 people were injured in clashes in the capital on 
the first day of a 48-hour general strike against the South 
American country's privatisation plans, police and unions
said on Thursday.

"There are six injured protesters who were brutally and 
unnecessarily beaten by riot police," said the head of 
the National Transport Workers Union, Persio Duarte.

Unions are demanding that the government back down on 
plans to allow private investment in telephone company 
Antelco, water company Corposana and the country's 
only railway company.

Police said four members of security forces were also 
injured in the clashes between police and groups of 
protesters who tried to block access roads into
Asuncion, the usually sleepy capital of the subtropical 
nation of 5 million people.

The streets of the main shopping and business districts 
in Asuncion and in the trading town of Ciudad del Este
on the borders of Brazil and Argentina were almost 
deserted and most shops and offices were closed. 
Bus drivers also joined the strike.

But a government spokesman said the country's two main 
airports were operating as normal and Secretary of the
Presidency Jaime Bestard called the strike a failure.

"The assistance level at public institutions is very 
high. We estimate that some 80 percent of (state)
workers are at their posts and all services are
functioning normally," Bestard said at a press 
conference.

Interior Minister Walter Bower accused protesters of 
taking "an extreme attitude, attacking the police...
and provoking a violent reaction in which it
is difficult to control the use of force."

Public Works Minister Jose Alberto Planas told reporters 
that "the rights of both protesters and those who wish
to go to work are totally guaranteed by the security forces."

Companies which operate Paraguay's private public 
transport system said at least 10 vehicles were 
damaged by protesters who threw rocks or set fire to
the buses.

The government posted about 10,000 police around the 
country and told public servants that they had special 
permission to arrive late to work.

Public service unions have called an eight-day strike 
against the privatisation plans that began on 
Wednesday, although most government offices
continued to function.

Private sector unions called a 48-hour strike. "We are
against this (privatization) plan because it is completely
irrational and is aimed at nothing but covering up fraud 
and con tricks," said Corposana union chief Hugo
Gonzalez.

Since the 35-year dictatorship of Gen. Alfredo 
Stroessner ended in 1989,giving way to a 
corruption-riddled democracy run by Stroessner's 
Colorado Party, Paraguay has already sold off a
handful of state enterprises.

State airline LAPSA, the sugar refinery Canas 
Paraguayas, the merchant naval fleet operating 
on the Paraguay River and the steel company 
Aceros del Paraguay all went to private hands.

Widespread political unrest, including the collapse of 
the coalition between President Luis Gonzalez 
Macchi's Colorados and their erstwhile Liberal Party
allies, has helped delay Paraguay's privatisation plans.

Paraguay's official gross domestic product of $10 
billion is swollen by a huge black market economy 
fed by rampant smuggling.