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Suicides increase pressure on US to close Guantanamo
Nepal Govt to drop cases against Maoists
Emulate India’s experiment on
Indian capt may get reduced prison term
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Five killed in Quetta blast
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Suicides increase pressure on US to close Guantanamo
Washington, June 12 The two Saudis and a Yemeni killed themselves over the weekend --- the first successful suicides at the US prison camp since it opened in 2002 and the latest incident to highlight the intense controversy about its continued existence. President Bush has defended Guantanamo Bay as a necessary means of holding men who would do "grave harm to American citizens" while an increasing number of critics believe the prison's ongoing operation and the Bush administration's refusal to place the prisoners before the courts represents a stain on the nation's reputation. Yesterday, as military authorities investigated how the prisoners were able to use their clothes and sheets to hang themselves --- their bodies having been discovered early on Saturday morning --- the debate about the prison's future continued. "The US administration can no longer turn a blind eye to the cruelty of the regime that it has created in Guantanamo, now in its fifth year," said Amnesty International. "President George Bush has it within his power to order an end to this human rights scandal and to ensure that detainees are either brought to fair trial or released." Details about the deaths were still emerging last night, but it seems clear the men made some sort of suicide pact together. Debate was also raging yesterday about the motivation for the suicides. Navy Rear Admiral Harry Harris, the prison commander, claimed the men were "committed jihadists" who died in acts, not of desperation, but of "asymmetrical warfare against us". But lawyers for other prisoners said there had been clear signs of the increasing desperation felt by many detainees held without charge for more than four years - something highlighted by the Red Cross, the only independent body permitted access. "These people are despairing because they are being held lawlessly. There's no end in sight," Ken Roth, head of Human Rights Watch, told the BBC. "They're not being brought before any independent judges. They're not being charged and convicted for any crime." Lawyers said only 10 inmates of the prison have been formally charged with a crime. They also pointed to a report by New Jersey's Seton Hall University that showed, based on the military's own documents, that 55 per cent of the prisoners are not alleged to have committed any hostile acts against the US and that 40 per cent are not accused of affiliation with al-Qaida. The same documents suggested only 8 per cent of prisoners are accused of fighting for a terrorist group and that 86 per cent were captured by the Northern Alliance or Pakistani authorities "at a time when the US offered large bounties for capture of suspected terrorists". Constitutional Affairs Minister Harriet Harman yesterday echoed that view. "It is in a legal no man's land," she said. "Either it should be moved to America and then they can hold those people under the American justice system or it should be closed." It may well be the courts that decide the prison's future. The US Supreme Court is due to decide on June 30 whether prisoners have the right to have their cases heard before civil courts, rather than military hearings. — By arrangement with The Independent, London.
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Nepal Govt to drop cases against Maoists
Kathmandu, June 12 The Cabinet meeting chaired by Mr Koirala also decided not to pursue further investigations against the Maoist cadres facing charges under the law. Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said the government had agreed to free hundreds of rebels prisoners in a bid to boost the peace process. "The government assured us that they would release 350 of our comrades today and drop charges against them. After their release, there will still be around 250 in prison," he said, adding it had also promised that "they are going to help us get the comrades in India released." Releasing the jailed cadres is one of the pre-conditions set by the Maoists to move ahead the peace process, Minister for Information and Communication Dilendra Badu told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. Prisoners detained under the royally imposed Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Ordinance are "in the process of being released," he said. — PTI
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Emulate India’s experiment on legal rights: CJI
Chandigarh, June 12 The Chief Justice of India (CJI), Mr Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, and some other Judges also attended the conference along with about 60-odd lawyers. According to a release, CJI Sabharwal co-chaired the session on legal rights of the indigenous persons around the world. Mr Justice Sabharwal expressed the view that the Indian experiment in this context could be a role model, which could be inculcated by other parts of the world to protect the rights and welfare of the indigenous and tribal people. Giving details of the conference, Chandigarh based lawyers, Mr Anil and Mr Ranjit Malhotra who returned from Toronto on Sunday, described it as a momentous legal event. The ILA founded in Brussels in 1873 has now with some 3500 members in 15 national branches with headquarters in London. Set up with tracks in international dispute resolution, business regulation, international institutions, human rights and the rule of law, environment development, culture and intellectual property, the conference had something for everyone, said Mr Malhotra. Mr Anil and Mr Ranjit Malhotra made a presentation at the conference on “Enforcement of Foreign Judgments and Foreign Arbitral Awards in the Indian Civil Jurisdiction,” in the session on “Emerging Trends in the Enforcement of Arbitral Awards.” A comparison in the Indian perspective of Civil Law, Arbitration Law and Private International Law was made available to the people who sought implementation of a foreign judgment or foreign award in the Indian jurisdiction. Besides, in the session on “Globalisation of Class Actions,” the Malhotras presented an intervention on the concept of the emerging trends of imposition of exemplary costs being evolved by Indian courts as a deterrent practice to ward off frivolous and vexatious class actions in the name of public interest litigation. They explained that this was being done in harmony while simultaneously reserving the salutary positive effects of public interest litigation evolved in India in the late 1970s by the Indian Courts. This Indian role model was a laudable concept and practice which was unbridled by legislation and evolved in a regime free from contingency fees and could therefore be emulated by foreign jurisdictions where the concept was still in infancy. Prominent speakers at the conference included Lech Walesa, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Former President of Poland, Hans Blix, Chairman of the Independent International Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction and Cherie Booth, noted British Barrister and Human Rights Advocate.
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Indian capt may get reduced prison term
Dubai, June 12 The failure to get the letter of pardon attested by the Maharashtra Government, as required, led to the Fujairah Court of First Instance not taking it into cognisance and sentencing Capt Jitendra Malhotra to life and Sumeet Bhola, Maher Gurprit Singh, Moosa Kounge, Pramod Chavan, Skariah Money Mannil and Datta Suman to five years each in jail. The next of kin of the deceased sailor Sudhir Nonia Jagannath, 31, who died of a head injury during a fight on board, had pardoned the seven men lodged in a Fujairah jail on charges of murder. — PTI
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Islamabad, June 12 Police officials told reporters that the blast occurred in a hotel in the provincial capital of Quetta. The bomb disposal squad was examining specimen collected from the site which also damaged nearby fruit and vegetables shops, the officials added. No one has so far claimed responsibility for the explosion. Balochistan has been in the grip of renewed violence since last December when the government announced to explore new oil and gas reserves from the Kohlu district, some 500 km east of Quetta. The Baloch nationalists accuse the centre of exploring mineral resources in the province without passing on the benefits to the people there. — UNI
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