July 5
INDONESIA:
Indonesia's Rais Talks Tough on Terror
Muslim leader Amien Rais, who talks tough on terror and is admired for his
simple lifestyle, has made up ground in the battle for 2nd place in
Indonesia's presidential election after being written off only weeks ago.
Former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is favored to win Indonesia's 1st
direct presidential election on Monday, but if no candidate gets more than
50 % a run-off will be held in September between the top 2.
After an energetic campaign compared to some of his rivals -- Rais drew
100,000 supporters at a rally in Jakarta a week ago -- the outspoken
politician has improved his chances.
Most recent opinion polls show around 40 to 45 % of Indonesians would vote
for Yudhoyono.
Rais and 2 rivals, incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri and former
armed forces chief Wiranto, lag far behind, but within striking distance
of one another.
Rais received a boost on Wednesday when the conservative Prosperous
Justice Party endorsed his candidacy.
The Islamic PKS has impressed with its anti-graft platform. It won 45
seats in April's legislative polls, making it the 7th-biggest party in the
550-strong parliament.
Rais's National Mandate Party won 52 seats.
When campaigning for the parliamentary elections, Rais said Indonesia
looked like a weak link in the war on terror.
He said if he were president he would use an iron hand to combat terror in
the world's most populous Muslim nation, hit by attacks in recent years
blamed on radical Islamic groups.
"These terrorists must be given the death penalty. If there is some
penalty more severe than the death sentence, I will give them that
sentence," Rais told Reuters in March.
He has also said Islamic schools preaching hate should be shut down and
the Bali bombers should not be allowed to appeal their death sentences. "I
don't feel at ease if those terrorists who have been given death verdicts
are given chances to appeal. This is ridiculous. We have to banish them
from this earth. The sooner the better."
Such talk is likely music to the ears of U.S. officials pushing a hard
line in the war against terror, but they may be less pleased by Rais's
frequent criticism of American policy in Iraq and elsewhere, and of
President Bush.
Rais, 60, once led the 30-million-strong Muhammadiyah, the country's
2nd-largest Muslim group. He is currently chief of Indonesia's top
legislative body.
He has pledged to wage war on graft in Indonesia, which he has labeled
"the most corrupt country on earth."
A prominent and wily politician, Rais could have a voice in the government
that ultimately emerges, even if he loses. But some believe he will return
to teaching if he doesn't make it past the 1st round.
Rais, who earned graduate degrees from U.S. universities, was one of the
leaders of nationwide demonstrations in 1998 that sought reforms and
helped pressure then-president Suharto into stepping down.
Of the leading candidates he is the most populist, but not to the point of
shifting economic policy too far from the relatively orthodox,
pro-business line the country has attempted to follow in recent years
under International Monetary Fund guidance.
(source: Reuters)
IRAQ:
Iraq poised to bring back death penalty
Iraq's interim government is poised to reintroduce the death penalty and
offer a limited amnesty to insurgents.
The planned measures mean that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who
is facing trial in Baghdad on multiple charges, could eventually receive a
death sentence.
But it was unclear on Monday whether what the government referred to as a
revised public law would amount to martial law.
Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said only the government would soon
announce a package of measures including the restoration of the death
penalty, a revised public safety law and a limited amnesty for insurgents.
The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority that governed Iraq after
Saddam's fall had suspended the death penalty.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has mused publicly that he might
introduce martial law to clamp down on the continuing violent rebellion
against U.S.-led coalition troops and their domestic allies.
Saddam appeared in Baghdad court last Thursday and is expected to face
charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
(source: CBC News)
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Iraqi demonstrators demand death penalty for Saddam, Chemical Ali
An anti-Saddam Hussein rally was held Monday in Iraq.
As many as 4000 people took part in the march, demanding that deposed
dictator Hussein and Ali Hassan al-Majid, the general also known as
"Chemical Ali", be put to death for a chemical attack that killed
thousands of Kurds in the 1980s.
The march ended at the cemetery where many victims of the attack were
buried. Some demonstrators carried photographs of loved ones lost in the
attack.
Iraq's interim prime minister says he would not interfere with an Iraqi
tribunal's right to decide whether Saddam and his top lieutenants should
be executed on war crimes charges.
(source: WIS-TV News)
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Allawi says death penalty for Saddam is up to court
The interim prime minister said Monday he would not interfere with an
Iraqi tribunal's right to decide whether Saddam Hussein and his top
lieutenants should be executed on war crimes charges, the Arab language
television station Al-Arabiya reported.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said he was willing to abide by whatever the
court decides in the trial, which is not expected to begin for months.
Iraq assumed legal custody of Saddam from the United States last week and
reinstated the death penalty, which had been suspended by U.S. occupation
authorities.
"As for the execution, that is for the court to decide -- so long as a
decision is reached impartially and fairly," he said.
Saddam's 1st court appearance Thursday dominated the media across Iraq.
The broadly outlined charges include the slaughter of Shiites during a
1991 uprising and a chemical weapons attack against Kurds in the northern
city of Halabja.
Thousands of Kurds demonstrated Monday in Halabja, demanding that Saddam
and one of his key lieutenants -- Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as
"Chemical Ali" -- be put to death for the gas attack that killed 5,000
people on March 16, 1988. Carrying photos of their slain loved ones, the
marchers said they want Saddam to be tried and executed in their town.
"Every family in this city lost no less than five of its dear sons," said
demonstrator Sabiha Ali, 50. "Therefore, we want to execute Saddam on the
soil of the land."
Iraq has been wracked by lawlessness and violence since the fall of
Saddam's regime 14 months ago.
Iraqi government officials have suggested that tough moves will soon be
taken to combat the violence, but canceled a news conference Monday where
they had been expected to announce a limited amnesty for insurgents and
martial law in parts of the country.
The news conference with Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan and Human
Rights Minister Bakhtiyar Amin was postponed indefinitely just as it was
scheduled to begin. The government had canceled a previous news conference
on the same topic.
(source: Associated Press)
GERMANY:
German greens oppose death penalty for Saddam
Saddam Hussein should not be given the death penalty regardless of his
atrocities, the head of the German Greens party said in an interview
published today.
Regardless of the atrocities for which Saddam Hussein is responsible, I am
strictly against the death penalty, Greens chairwoman, Ms Angelika Beer
told Bild Am Sonntag newspaper.
There can be no such thing as permitting a little torture now and again or
a little putting to death now and again, said the leader of the Junior
Partner party in Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroeders Centre-left coalition
government.
"Thus torture and the death penalty must remain taboo for us Europeans
even if the Americans practise both," she told the Sunday Tabloid.
She said Saddam's trial represented an opportunity for the new Iraqi
government to demonstrate respect for the basic tenets of democracy. "Life
imprisonment: yes, she said. The death penalty: no."
(source: Navhind Times)
INDIA:
Efforts on to prove death row convict insane
A group of lawyers is preparing to move the Supreme Court against the
execution of rapist-murderer Dhananjoy Chatterjee on the ground that he is
mentally unsound.
The lawyers would argue that the death row convict should be spared the
noose because his execution had already been delayed for long, local media
reports said.
Chatterjee was to hang June 25 for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old
girl in 1990, but the execution was stayed after the President Dr A P J
Abdul Kalam decided to hear a 2nd clemency plea hours before the hanging.
His defence lawyers are now waiting for Dr Kalams verdict, which is
unlikely to remit the death sentence.
The defence lawyers, led by Mumbai-based Mr Colin Gonzalves, are seeking
to get Chatterjees death verdict commuted to life sentence. Amnesty
International, which campaigns for abolition of capital punishment, is
aiding Chatterjees defence lawyers, reports said.
A city-based rights organisation campaigning for clemency for Chatterjee
has said he is in no mental condition to be hanged.
The authorities arent allowing Chatterjees family members to meet him. We
suspect they are trying to cover up his mental illness, said Mr Sujato
Bhadra of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR).
Let there be a special team to assess his health condition first, a news
report quoted lawyer Mr Joymalla Bagchi as saying. The lawyers argued that
the dillydallying over Chatterjees mercy petition had caused immense
mental agony to the convict and it would not be unnatural if he had lost
his mental balance under this pressure.
Chatterjee had first been handed the death sentence Feb 25, 1994. Lawyers
opposed to the death ban claimed they would argue about who was
responsible for the delay in carrying out Chatterjees execution.
For 13 long years the man has suffered a lot, specially after he was
condemned to death in 1994. The death was stayed and then upheld, stayed
again and again upheld. This will no doubt cause trauma, Mr Bagchi said.
Chatterjees lawyers would cite a 1983 judgement in the Sher Singh vs
Punjab government case in which the convicts death sentence was commuted
to a life term because his hanging had been delayed by 2 years.
(source: The Nahvind Times)
