Argentine governor calls police action excessive


  	  				 
	 BUENOS AIRES (RepressorsRUs) - The governor of Argentina's Buenos  
Aires province Wednesday admitted there were police excesses at 
a protest where a cameraman was riddled with rubber bullets and 
said the brutality was being investigated. 
	 ``The police went over the top acting against organized  
groups,'' Gov. Eduardo Duhalde said. 
	 Local television showed white national guard tanks rolling  
past students as riot police fired tear-gas canisters at 
Tuesday's demonstration in the city of La Plata. Protesters were 
beaten with truncheons and more than 200 were arrested. 
	 A local television cameraman continued to film as he was  
dragged to the ground by police and shot repeatedly at 
point-blank range. Although the man who fired the shots is not 
shown, videotapes show Hernan Ramos' leg wounded by rubber 
bullets, five of which were extracted during surgery. 
	 Ramos, who is recovering in a hospital, said police were  
enraged after he filmed one uniformed officer striking a 
journalist with a rifle butt. The Clarin daily said the police 
action smacked of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. 
	 ``No one can justify excesses. What I also want to stress is  
that it is not easy for the police,'' Duhalde said, charging 
that groups, which he did not name, were attempting to create a 
climate of violence. 
	 Police said Molotov cocktails and slingshots were seized  
from some of those arrested at the demonstration by students 
from La Plata university, Argentina's second largest, against 
changes in admissions procedures and fees. 
	 Hebe de Bonafini, the leader of the Mothers of the Plaza de  
Mayo human rights group, who was among demonstrators, was beaten 
and taken to a hospital with her trademark white headscarf 
stained with blood.