Oct. 29
IRELAND/BRITAIN:
Ireland urges Britain to review WW1 army executions
Ireland appealed to Britain on Thursday to re-examine the case of 26 Irish
soldiers court-martialled and executed by the British army during World
War One following the 1st formal report into their deaths.
Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said documents suggested Irish soldiers had
been punished more harshly than their British counterparts and indicated
that the military justice system had been class-biased.
"The number of Irish soldiers condemned to death by courts-martial during
World War One represents 8 % of the total number of condemnations, while
the number of Irish troops corresponds to only approximately 2 % of the
British army numbers at the time," Ahern said in a statement.
"As we approach the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War ...
a retrospective action by the British government to redress the
condemnation of those 'shot at dawn' would be widely welcomed."
The Irish soldiers were executed for offences including desertion,
striking an officer and disobedience.
Their deaths were investigated after campaign group "Shot at Dawn" called
for support from the Irish government.
The group has lobbied Britain to pardon retrospectively 306 soldiers
executed for military offences during the war.
Earlier this year, Britain agreed to send Ireland files about the Irish
deaths for review.
(source: San Diego Union-Tribune)
INDONESIA:
Bashir faces death penalty if convicted
Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, 66, had "planned and/or incited others to
engage in a crime of terrorism, the prosecution told a court here
yesterday.
He has been accused of leading the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) -
which is behind the deadly Bali and Marriott hotel bombings. The trial got
underway yesterday. The cleric could face death if found guilty under
tough Indonesian anti-terrorism laws which were put in place after the
Bali attacks.
The trial is being seen as a test of newly-elected Indonesian President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's commitment to stamping out terrorism.
In yesterday's 3-hour hearing, prosecutor Salman Maryadi said Bashir had
played a key role in last year's Marriott hotel bombing that killed 12
people.
He said the cleric, as the JI chief, visited the Hudaibiyah military
training camp - set up by the JI - in April 2000 and relayed a "ruling
from Osama bin Laden, which permitted attacks and killings of Americans
and their allies".
The bespectacled cleric, in a white religious cap and a white shawl over a
greyish vest, declared his innocence after arriving at the court flanked
by heavily-armed anti-terrorism police.
Around 650 policemen including snipers ringed the court building as the
trial got underway amid shouts of Allahu Akbar (God is great) from his
supporters. One supporter tried to force his way into the courtroom,
beating 2 policemen in his attempt.
"I ask the panel of judges and the prosecutors to beware of efforts by the
enemies of Allah to intervene. (There) should be no infiltration," the
cleric said in his comment to the court, referring to the United States
and Australia, countries he has repeatedly blamed for his detention and
trial.
(source: Singapore Today)
SOUTH AFRICA:
NewNats give way on death penalty
8 of 9 New National Party Members of Parliament - including national
leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk - attended the parliamentary caucus of the
ruling African National Congress (ANC) for the 1st time on Thursday.
As the party - which vigorously fought for the reintroduction of the death
penalty in the national election in April - now comes under the discipline
of the ANC, its opposition to this matter will now formally fall away, it
was revealed on Thursday.
The only member of its ranks not to attend was Stan Simmons, who has not
agreed to hold joint membership with the ANC - although he did attend the
last NNP caucus meeting held last Thursday. The party has taken a decision
to allow its members to join the ANC.
At a press conference after the caucus meeting on Thursday - attended by
ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe and NNP chief whip Carl Greyling - who was
repeatedly introduced as "Comrade Carl" - it was announced that the NNP
component of the ANC would join the ANC caucus every 2 weeks, but meet as
a separate caucus on the intervening Thursdays.
This was because constitutionally, the NNP was still recognised as a
separate party in Parliament - although the bulk of its membership has
joined the ANC.
Asked if his party had betrayed the mandate given to it as voters in the
April election, Greyling said this had been debated in the media and he
would not be discussing the matter further.
Asked about how the matter of the NNP's opposition on the death penalty
would be handled, he said: "We are now members of the African National
Congress caucus and as such we must now obey the policies of the ANC". The
ANC opposes its reintroduction.
The NNP members who attended the ANC caucus today were Francois Beukman,
who is the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Andre
Gaum, Greyling, Van Schalkwyk, who is now Environment and Tourism
Minister, Cecil Herandien, Carol Johnson, Freddy Adams and Kenneth
Sinclair.
The parties will retain separate identities until next September - when
NNP MPs can formally cross to the ANC during the political defection
period.
(source: Business Day)
CANADA:
Electric chair used on native children in residential schools
The home-made electric chair used for years to punish aboriginal children
at St. Anne's Residential School in this James Bay (Fort Albany, Ontario)
community has dissappeared, but its memory endures. Hundreds of children
who survived the horrors of the school have bitter memories of the chair -
used as a means of forcing them to bend to the will of Roman Catholic
missionaries who ran the school.
"The nuns used it as a weapon" says former student Mary Anne
Nakogee-Davis, 41. " It was done to me on more than one occassion. They
would strap your arms to the metal arm rests, and it would jolt you and go
through your system. I don't know what i did that was bad enough to have
that done to me."
Edmund Metatawabin, 49, former Chief of the Fort Albany First Nation,
remembers being forced to take turns with his classmates sitting in the
chair and receiving painful jolts of electricity to entertain visiting
dignitaries.
"I was 6 years old. There was no sense of volunteering or anything. We
were just told by the brother to do it and there was never any question of
not doing it. Once the thing was cranked up, I could feel the current
going through me, mainly through my arms. Your legs are jumping up, and
everyone was laughing."
St. Anne's operated as a residential school from 1904 to 1973 in this
isolated Cree community of 1400 about 1000 kms north of Toronto.
A 3 year investigation by Ontario Provincial Police has found evidence of
widespread sexual and physical abuse of students, hundreds of whom have
been left with deep emotional scars.
Regional Crown attorney Martin Lambert has said some priests, brothers,
nuns, and lay workers who ran the school soon will be charged.
The federal government forced Cree and Ojibwa children to leave their
families and live for ten months of the year at the school, which was
operated as part of a nationwide policy of trying to assimilate
aboriginals into the dominate white culture. It was a policy that didn't
work. Most schools were closed during the 1960s and 1970s.
St. Anne's was operated by the Roman Catholic diocese of Moosonee, the
Oblate order and the Grey Nuns, without much outside supervision.
Other students have told police investigators of heterosexual and
homosexual rape, sexual fondling, forced masturbation and severe beatings.
Students have complained of humiliating treatment, such as being forced to
eat their food off the floor.
Boys and girls in the school weren't allowed to speak to each other, and
if brothers and sisters communicated, even by a wave of a hand or a smile,
they were beaten, students say.
When children died of natural causes, their parents were not always
notified. They learned of the death only when their child failed to come
back to their community for the 2-month summer holiday.
"What happened at St. Anne's is the truth and we have to acknowledge it,"
says Nakogee-Davis. "If we don't do anything, then people will say it
never happened, that we are just talking. We have to prove it happened and
help the victims."
for more evidence of crimes in residential schools see:
www.hiddenfromhistory.org http://canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org
(source: Edmonton Journal)
