Bangladesh charges 1,000 guards in mutiny massacre

The Jakarta Post, Parveen Ahmed, The Associated Press, Dhaka | Sun, 03/01/2009
  

Bangladeshi police charged more than 1,000 border guards with murder and arson Sunday after a bloody mutiny in the capital left as many as 148 people dead or missing, most of them army officers. 

The government announced plans to form a special tribunal to try the guards who organized the mutiny. 

Of a total of 181 officers, only 33 are known to have survived the uprising at the Bangladesh Rifles border force headquarters in Dhaka, said army spokesman Brig. Gen. Mahmud Hossain. 

Teams continued searching the compound and nearby sewers Sunday for more bodies, including 71 people still unaccounted for. Most of the missing were presumed dead, according to Sheikh Mohammad Shajalal, a firefighter overseeing the search. 

Dhaka metropolitan police official Nobojyoti Khisa said authorities filed murder and arson cases Sunday against more than 1,000 border guards. It was unclear whether those guards would face the special tribunal or other courts. 

The insurrection apparently erupted over the border guards' long-standing complaints that their pay has not kept pace with the salaries of soldiers in the army. 

The crisis has raised questions about the stability of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's two-month-old government in the South Asian country, which has seen nearly two dozen successful and failed military coups in its 38-year history. 

Hasina ended the two-day standoff by persuading the guards to surrender with promises of an amnesty coupled with threats of military force - tanks rolled into Dhaka's streets before the insurrection ended on Thursday. 

Later, the government said those directly responsible for the mutiny and massacre would not fall under the amnesty. 

Hundreds of guards began reporting back to their headquarters on Sunday - all claiming they had no part in the mutiny - after the Home Ministry gave them a 24-hour ultimatum to return to their posts, report to police stations or face disciplinary action. 

The guards waited outside as officials checked their credentials. Some said they were on leave or off duty during the mutiny, while others claimed they fled the compound after the violence started. 

"Why should I be afraid of returning to work? I was not involved in the incident. I left to go to my family outside after the shooting began," said one guard, who refused to give his name. 

The government decided on the tribunal at a Cabinet meeting late Saturday, ruling party spokesman Syed Ashraful Islam said. He said initial evidence suggested the mutinous guards may have had outside assistance, but he did not elaborate.

Hasina on Sunday addressed a gathering of army officers inside military headquarters. Details of the meeting were not immediately available. 

On Friday, army chief Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed met with Hasina and reassured her of the military's support for her government. 

But on Saturday, Hossain, the army spokesman, said that soldiers angered by the carnage were demeaning swift justice for the deaths of their officers. By law, the border force's leadership is made up of army officers. 

Police said earlier that about 200 fleeing guards were arrested in and around the capital over the weekend, while those still inside the compound after the mutiny were being kept at a hospital on the premises. 

Maj. Ishtiaq, who was part of the army leadership for the border force, told reporters that a border guard helped him escape the uprising. 

"When the firing began he said, 'Sir, they will kill you, please come with me.' It was like doomsday for me. I then went with him to his residence amid shooting all around. He gave me his clothes to hide my identity," said Ishtiaq, who only uses one name. 

"It was unbelievable when the killers rejoiced after killing the officers," he said. 

Bangladesh returned to democracy after elections in late December 2008, nearly two years after an army-backed interim government took over amid street protests demanding electoral reforms.

Athens sees more violent clashes

BBC World

Greek police have again clashed with demonstrators in Athens, two weeks after the fatal shooting of a teenager by police sparked nationwide unrest. 

The violence followed a memorial gathering at the site where Alexandros Grigoropoulos died on 6 December.

Groups of demonstrators threw rocks and petrol bombs at police, who responded with volleys of tear gas.

Protests in Athens and other cities in the past fortnight over the police killing have often turned violent. 

Greece's worst unrest in decades is fuelled by anger at high youth unemployment and unpopular government reforms. 

The protests have caused hundreds of millions of euros in damage, rocking a conservative government that has a one-seat majority and trails the opposition in polls. 

Tree attacked 

The protesters in Athens are using the National Technical University of Athens - known as the Polytechnic - as a base. 

It is located near the central Athens neighbourhood of Exarchia where 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropolous was killed. 

Security forces are not allowed on the grounds of the Polytechnic without permission from the university's administrators. No such authorisation has been given. 

A group of youths attacked the Christmas tree in Syntagma Square in central Athens, tossing rubbish at it and attempting to set it on fire. 

Riot police ringed the tree, which itself was a replacement for one burnt down at the height of the rioting, on 8 December. 

The policeman accused of shooting Alexandros Grigoropoulos has been charged with murder. 

Conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has rejected calls to step down, despite growing public pressure. 

But he has acknowledged that "long-unresolved problems, such as the lack of meritocracy, corruption in everyday life and a sense of social injustice" are fuelling the anger of young people.

Shocking study finds most will torture if ordered

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor, Fri Dec 19, 2008 2:26am EST  

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some things never change. Scientists said on Friday they had replicated an experiment in which people obediently delivered painful shocks to others if encouraged to do so by authority figures. 

Seventy percent of volunteers continued to administer electrical shocks -- or at least they believed they were doing so -- even after an actor claimed they were painful, Jerry Burger of Santa Clara University in California found. 

"What we found is validation of the same argument -- if you put people into certain situations, they will act in surprising, and maybe often even disturbing, ways," Burger said in a telephone interview. "This research is still relevant." 

Burger was replicating an experiment published in 1961 by Yale University professor Stanley Milgram, in which volunteers were asked to deliver electric "shocks" to other people if they answered certain questions incorrectly. 

Milgram found that, after hearing an actor cry out in pain at 150 volts, 82.5 percent of participants continued administering shocks, most to the maximum 450 volts. 

The experiment surprised psychologists and no one has tried to replicate it because of the distress suffered by many of the volunteers who believed they were shocking another person. 

"When you hear the man scream and say, 'let me out, I can't stand it,' that is the point when the real stress that people criticized Milgram for kicked in," Burger said. 

"It was a very, very, very stressful experience for many of the participants. That is the reason no one can ethically replicate the experiment today." 

'SURPRISING AND DISAPPOINTING' 

Burger modified the experiment, by stopping at the 150 volt point for the 29 men and 41 women in his experiment. He measured how many of his volunteers began to deliver another shock when prompted by the experiment's leader -- but instead of letting them do so, stopped them. 

In Milgram's original experiment, 150 volts seemed to be the turning point. 

In Burger's modified experiment, 70 percent of the volunteers were willing to give shocks greater than 150 volts. 

At one point, researchers brought in a volunteer who knew what was going on and refused to administer shocks beyond 150 volts. Despite the example, 63 percent of the participants continued administering shocks past 150 volts. 

"That was surprising and disappointing," Burger said. 

Burger found no differences among his volunteers, aged 20 to 81, and carefully screened them to be average representatives of the U.S. public. 

Burger said the experiment, published in the American Psychologist, can only partly explain the widely reported prisoner abuse at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or events during World War Two. 

"Although one must be cautious when making the leap from laboratory studies to complex social behaviors such as genocide, understanding the social psychological factors that contribute to people acting in unexpected and unsettling ways is important," he wrote. 

"It is not that there is something wrong with the people," Burger said. "The idea has been somehow there was this characteristic that people had back in the early 1960s that they were somehow more prone to obedience." 

(Editing by Stacey Joyce)

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Police: Pa. man shot for making noise during movie

China blogger beaten to death

(CNN) -- Authorities have fired an official in central China after city inspectors reportedly beat to death a man who filmed their confrontation with villagers, China's Xinhua news agency reports.

The killing has sparked outrage in China, with thousands expressing outrage in Chinese Internet chat rooms, often the only outlet for public criticism of the government.

The incident has also alarmed advocates of press freedom, who say municipal authorities had no right to attack a man for simply filming them.

Police have detained 24 municipal inspectors and are investigating more than 100 in the death of Wei Wenhua, a 41-year-old construction company executive, Xinhua reported on Friday.

The swift action by officials reflects concerns that the incident could spark larger protests against authorities, whose heavy-handed approach often arouses resentment.

On Monday Wei happened on a confrontation in the central Chinese province of Hubei between city inspectors and villagers protesting over the dumping of waste near their homes.

A scuffle developed when residents tried to prevent trucks from unloading the rubbish, Xinhua said.

When Wei took out his cell phone to record the protest, more than 50 municipal inspectors turned on him, attacking him for five minutes, Xinhua said. Wei was dead on arrival at a Tianmen hospital, the report said.

Qi Zhengjun, chief of the urban administration bureau in the city of Tianmen, lost his job over the incident, Xinhua reported Friday.

The beating was condemned online. "It's no longer news that urban administrators enforce the law with violence," said an editorial on the news Web site Northeast News, according to The Associated Press.

"But now someone has been beaten to death on site. It has brought us not surprise, but unspeakable anger."

Chen Yizhong, a columnist on Xinhua's Web site, asked why violence by city inspectors is allowed to continue. "Cities need administration, but urban administrators need to be governed by law first," he wrote.

An international press freedom group, Reporters Without Borders, protested the killing.

"Wei is the first 'citizen journalist' to die in China because of what he was trying to film," the group said in a statement.

"He was beaten to death for doing something which is becoming more and more common and which was a way to expose law-enforcement officers who keep on overstepping their limits."

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U.S. concerned for Saudi blogger

Israel Sends More Invitations

Monday, 17 December, 2007 | 16:17 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Israeli government is hoping for more visits from Indonesian notables to its country in an effort to create dialog between the two sides.

“Not only clergymen, but we also want to invite politicians, businessmen, artists and journalists,” said the Israeli Ambassador to Singapore, Illan Ben Dov, when contacted by Tempo via cellular phone yesterday (16/12).

According to Ben Dov, Indonesian and Israeli people need a dialog to eliminate misunderstandings as well as to build understanding and trust in each other.

This is because ignorance, he said, has spread radical Islamic ideology.

“The Palestine-Israel conflict is not a religious conflict, but rather a conflict over the seizing of territory,” he said.

Therefore, Ben Dov welcomed the visit of five Indonesian Muslim intellectuals to Israel between 2 and 8 December.

They were Syaif Mughni (Head of the East Java Muhammadiyah Regional Management), Abdul A'la (a lecturer at Sunan Ampel State Islamic University, Surabaya), Badrun Alaina (a lecturer at Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Yogyakarta), Abdul Qadir (a lecturer at Alauddin State Islamic University, Makassar) and Dr Nuryadi (a lecturer at Hamka University, Jakarta).

They went at the invitation of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the LibForAll Foundation, which was set up by former president Abdurrahman Wahid together with C. Holland Taylor.

“Our mission is not politics, but peace,” said A'la.

He also said that during his visit the group went to Sderot, a city in Southern Israel which was just abandoned by the mayor as it was bombarded by Palestinian soldiers every day, and the Gaza Strip.

A'la said he hoped that a sincere, honest and just dialog would continue to be developed, instead of terror and violence.

Faisal Assegaf

Dissident group accuses Myanmar guards of beating, killing detainees after protest crackdown

The Jakarta Post

YANGON (AP): Guards at detention centers in Myanmar beat, kicked and slashed protesters rounded up during the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations, sometimes leaving their victims to die of their injuries, a dissident group said.

At the United Nations, meanwhile, the Security Council issued its first-ever statement on Myanmar, saying Thursday it "strongly deplores" the violent crackdown by the country's military rulers and called for a "genuine dialogue" between the government and the pro-democracy opposition.

The U.N. said its special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, would fly back to the region next week for consultations with key governments on efforts to promote talks between Myanmar's junta and the democratic opposition.

Gambari will begin his consultations in Thailand on Monday and then travel to Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China and Japan, "with a view to returning to Myanmar shortly thereafter," U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. She gave no date.

Gambari met with the junta's leaders earlier this month during a four-day trip to Myanmar after troops brutally suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations. But the U.N. chief said after Gambari's visit that he could not call the trip "a success."

Myanmar's repressive military junta has said 10 people were killed and nearly 2,100 arrested in last month's demonstrations, with 700 later released. Diplomats and dissidents say the death toll is likely much higher and up to 6,000 people were seized, including thousands of monks who led the rallies.

At least a dozen freed prisoners described brutal treatment at detention centers, including one who said "dozens" of detainees were killed, the Democratic Voice of Burma , a Norway-based short-wave radio station and Web site run by dissident journalists, said in a report Thursday.

"They beat everyone, including women and girls," the dissident group quoted an unidentified female detainee as saying. "I was beaten myself. Monks were targeted and they were not only beaten but also verbally abused by security officers."

"I heard people shouting and crying from the interrogation room and then, I saw an army medical surgeon carrying people away," the woman said. The group said she was held at the Government Technical Institute detention center in Yangon for five days following the crackdown.

DVB, which has supplied reliable information in the past, also reported that a 48-year-old detainee, U Than Aung, died Sept. 30 at a detention center in Yangon. He was arrested on Sept. 27, beaten in custody which left him with severe internal injuries, and died when he was not given immediate medical attention, the group said, citing sources close to the institute.

There was no way to independently confirm the reports attributed to freed prisoners.

In an interview with The Associated Press, another released prisoner, Zaw Myint, 45, said he was arrested Sept. 26 on a Yangon street after a soldier bashed his face with the butt of his gun, leaving a bloody gash across his cheek.

Zaw Myint said he was denied treatment for three days and then stitched up by a doctor at Yangon's notorious Insein prison, after the physician had treated several wounded prisoners.

"He used the same needle to treat all patients. And I saw him give injections to wounded people using the same syringe," said Zaw Myint, who was released after a week in custody. He said was "extremely worried" about having contracted HIV as a result of the treatment. Rights groups say that Myanmar's prisons have soaring rates of HIV-AIDS.

DVB also released video of an unidentified man who said "dozens" of detainees died. Another man was quoted as saying he saw two people die from severe beatings at Yangon City Hall. Authorities failed to give a boy medical treatment for a gunshot wound and even refused to let him drink water from a toilet before he died, the man was quoted as saying.

Human rights groups have long accused the military government of abuse and torture of prisoners. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, comprised of around 100 former inmates, has put out a report describing homosexual rape, electric shocks to the genitals, near drowning, burning with hot wax and other abuse.

A compromise statement approved Thursday by all 15 U.N. Security Council members - including close Myanmar ally China - emphasized "the importance of the early release of all political prisoners and remaining detainees."

The United States, Britain and France proposed a stronger text that would have condemned the violence and called for the immediate release of the political prisoners and detainees, singling out the detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the text was watered down to get approval from China. The United States and other countries have pushed for international sanctions, but China said that only a more conciliatory approach would work.

Riots in Islamabad Over Musharraf

Time, Saturday, Sep. 29, 2007 By ARYN BAKER/ISLAMABAD

Less than 24 hours after Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled in favor of President General Pervez Musharraf's eligibility to run for a second term in office, government forces laid siege to the Supreme Court grounds, where several hundred lawyers had taken refuge after a vicious attack on a peaceful protest in the capital, Islamabad.

More than 10,000 riot police and plainclothes officers were stationed around the court and the nearby Electoral Commission offices, where the nomination papers for 43 presidential hopefuls, including Musharraf, were being scrutinized for eligibility.

Some 1,000 lawyers and political workers brandishing banners and shouting "Go, Musharraf go!" were forcibly prevented from entering the Electoral Commission grounds. Within minutes of reaching the gate, baton-wielding police charged the protesters. Yasser Raja, a 33-year-old lawyer from nearby Rawalpindi was beaten repeatedly on the head; when he attempted to protect himself the police continued to attack, causing extensive damage to his upraised arm.

His lawyer's uniform of white shirt and black suit was soaked in blood, but he continued to shout anti-Musharraf slogans. "These things cannot stop us," he said. "We are ready to sacrifice more and more. Our blood will not be taken in vain."

Read whole story ....

Countries urge Myanmar to use peaceful means, end military crackdown

The Jakarta Post

TOKYO (AP): Myanmar's main political and economic allies, China and Japan, joined other nations around the world in urging the country to use peaceful means to restore stability. The United States called on "all civilized nations" to press Myanmar's leaders to end their crackdown on demonstrators.

Japan, Myanmar's biggest aid contributor, lodged a protest over the death of a Japanese journalist, who was among at least nine people killed Thursday when soldiers fired automatic weapons into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators. A special envoy from the United Nations flew to Myanmar on Saturday to persuade the junta to start a dialogue with the opposition.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said in a telephone conversation with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that China was "very much concerned about the current situation" in Myanmar, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"China hopes all parties in Myanmar exercise restraint and use peaceful means to restore its stability as soon as possible," Wen said. He added the international community should offer constructive help to resolve the situation.

Only small numbers of protesters in Myanmar took to the streets Saturday as troops consolidated their control. Internet connections were cut.

The White House accused the government of attempting to hide the violence, and urged "all civilized nations" to pressure the junta to stop it.

"They don't want the world to see what is going on there," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Friday.

Bush and Brown talked about the situation via a video teleconference on Friday and agreed on the importance of the visit to Myanmar by U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari.

Stanzel said they agreed on "the need for countries around the world to continue to make their views clear to the junta."

Western diplomats were already complaining that Gambari would probably not be able to meet with senior opposition members or - apparently - the country's leader, Gen. Than Shwe. His schedule wasbeing set by Myanmar's government.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura protested the death of video journalist Kenji Nagai, 50, calling it "extremely regrettable," in a meeting with his Myanmar counterpart, Nyan Win, at U.N. headquarters in New York on Friday, according to a Foreign Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

Nyan Win said he was "extremely sorry" for the death, the official said.

Japan, Myanmar's largest aid donor, has so far ruled out immediate sanctions against the country, also known as Burma, but Komura suggested tougher steps could be taken.

Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka was to visit Myanmar on Sunday.

Myanmar's government says 10 people have been killed since it began cracking down on demonstrators on Wednesday. Brown said the number could be much higher.

"I am afraid we believe the loss of life is far greater than is being reported so far," the British prime minister said in a televised statement.

Dissident groups have put the number as high as 200, although that number could not be verified.

South Africa's governing African National Congress said that the junta's reaction "further deepens the political crisis in Burma, and undermines the legitimate demands of the Burmese people."

"It calls for an end to repression and human rights violations, and the reinstatement of the country's elected representatives," the ANC said in a statement Saturday.

Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont scrapped a prepared speech about Thai democracy at the U.N. General Assembly at the last minute Friday and instead delivered an uncharacteristic attack against Myanmar, his country's neighbor, according to Thailand's The Nation newspaper.

He said both countries, being Buddhist, share beliefs in nonviolence and tolerance.

Demonstrators around the world urged Myanmar to end the crackdown and called on China to use its influence with the country's generals to broker change.

About 30 people, including Myanmar citizens, rallied outside the Chinese government's liaison office in Hong Kong.

"As far as I see this fight, it's good," a Myanmar immigrant said. "People stepped out, but I don't think the government will give up easily," he said, declining to be identified for fear of retaliation on his family back home.

The protesters also read out a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao, urging Beijing to use its influence to persuade the Myanmar government to end its crackdown.