Bathani Tola massacre: Three sentenced to death, 20 get life term

May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Ara (Bihar), May 12 (ANI): A court here on Wednesday awarded death sentences to three persons and life imprisonment to over 20 others in connection with the infamous Bathani Tola massacre in Bhojpur District in 1996 in which 21 Dalits were killed.

Additional District and Sessions Judge A K Srivastava announced the quantum of punishment for the accused.

Earlier on May 5, Srivastava had convicted 23 accused persons and acquitted 30 others for want of evidence in connection with the carnage that took place under Sahar block of Bhojpur district on July 11, 1996 by suspected activists of Ranvir Sena, a private militia of land owners.

Around 70 Sena men had raided the village and killed 21 Dalits, mostly women and girls, including two babies in the age group of three to nine months. (ANI)

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Moily rules out amending Hindu Marriage Act to accommodate Khaps

May 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 11 (ANI): Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily on Tuesday ruled out amending the Hindu Marriage Act in order to accommodate the Khap Panchayat”s demands.

“We have suggested to amend the simple marriage act, not the Hindu Marriage Act, he added.”

Moily comment comes just a day after Congress MP and industrialist Navin Jindal said that he had never said anything to support the honour killings committed by the Khap Panchayats.

Earlier, Jindal has reportedly come out in support of the Haryana Khap Panchayats.

It has been reported that Jindal, who is currently abroad, sent a letter to the Khap Panchayats on Sunday affirming his support to them on the issue.

The self-styled Khap Panchayats gathered in Kurukshetra on April 13 and demanded a ban on marriages within the same ””gotra”” or sub caste.

They also protested against a Karnal Sessions Court verdict that awarded death sentences to five accused and a life-term to the leader of a Khap Panchayat for the murder of a newly-married couple.

Representatives of at least 20 Khap Panchayats from Haryana challenged the court ruling and said they would raise money to help the killers of the newly married couple.

They said they wanted the ””Hindu Marriage Act”” to be amended, to include a law that bans marriages within same sub caste or the same village. (ANI)

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Naveen Jindal comes out in support of Khap Panchayats

May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 10 (ANI): Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal has reportedly come out in support of the Haryana Khap Panchayats, who have been demanding an amendment to the ”Hindu Marriage Act”.

It has been reported that Jindal, who is currently abroad, sent a letter to the Khap Panchayats on Sunday affirming his support to them on the issue.

The self-styled Khap Panchayats gathered in Kurukshetra on April 13 and demanded a ban on marriages within the same ”gotra” or sub caste.

They also protested against a Karnal Sessions Court verdict that awarded death sentences to five accused and a life-term to the leader of a Khap Panchayat for the murder of a newly-married couple.

Representatives of at least 20 Khap Panchayats from Haryana challenged the court ruling and said they would raise money to help the killers of the newly married couple.

They said they wanted the ”Hindu Marriage Act” to be amended, to include a law that bans marriages within same sub caste or the same village.

They issued an ultimatum for a firm decision within two months, adding that they would form a panel to protect their traditions. (ANI)

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UAE tortured Indian death row prisoners to extract false confessions: Amnesty

April 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Apr. 24 (ANI): Amnesty International has accused authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of torturing the 17 Indians and forcing them to confess to a crime that it says they did not commit.

The Indians were sentenced to death last month for killing a Pakistani man.

According to the BBC, Amnesty says the men were taken to the scene of the killing in the emirate of Sharjah and forced to re-enact it. It says they were made to beat a police officer posing as the dead man a month after their arrest; an act filmed and presented as genuine evidence.

There has so far been no comment so far on the allegations from the UAE authorities.

Citing evidence produced by Indian rights group Lawyers For Human Rights International (LFHRI), Amnesty said that the 17 men were beaten with clubs, given electric shocks, deprived of sleep and forced to stand on one leg for prolonged periods.

“This is a mockery of justice. These 17 men have been tortured, forced to confess and sentenced to death based on a faked video,” Amnesty””s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, Hassiba Hadj Sharaoui said.

“Amnesty International is calling on the UAE authorities to investigate the allegations of torture and abuse and to ensure the 17 men receive a fair trial on appeal,” the group said in a statement.

The murder allegedly took place after a dispute over control of an illegal alcohol business.

About 50 people were involved in the fatal attack in which the Pakistani man was stabbed repeatedly.

Reports said that it could be the highest number of death sentences handed down at one time in the Emirates.

The 17 have appealed and are due to reappear in court on May 19. (ANI)

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China to execute a Japanese citizen for smuggling drugs

April 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Apr 1 (ANI): Japanese citizen Mitsunobu Akano, who has been convicted of attempting to smuggle drugs from China to Japan in 2006, will be executed on Monday.

The 66-year-old Akano was arrested in September 2006 when he was meeting someone at an airport in Dalian of Liaoning, attempting to smuggle 2.5 kg of stimulant drugs to Japan.

The Consulate of Japan in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China”s Liaoning province, has received a letter from the Chinese Government about Monday”s execution, said an official from the Japanese Embassy in China.

Embassy officials have also been told that another Japanese drug trafficker would be executed after Akano, but no further details are available, the China Daily reports.

If the convict is executed, it will be the first execution by China of a Japanese national since the two countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1972, according to Japanese government sources.

In June 2008, the Dalian Intermediate People”s Court handed down a death sentence on Akano. He appealed, but the sentence was finalized after the High People”s Court of Liaoning upheld it in 2009.

Eiji Kato, deputy counselor-general of the Consulate of Japan in Shenyang, on Wednesday confirmed that Akano”s execution had been scheduled, which he regretted.

“However, we understand that each country has the right to decide how to punish crimes according to their own situation and policy, and it is an internal issue of China,” the China Daily quoted Kato, as saying.

“Yet we have been communicating with China”s Ministry of Foreign Affairs because we are concerned that the execution might hurt the feelings of our people,” he said.

China”s Criminal Law stipulates that people trafficking more than 50 grams of heroin can be given death sentences. (ANI)

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Amnesty slams China for silence on execution toll

March 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Amnesty International criticised China on Tuesday for failing to reveal the number of people it executed last year, which the rights group estimates is more than the rest of the world combined.

Iran had the second highest number of executions in 2009, Amnesty said in a new report, adding that about a third of the country’s 388 executions took place in eight weeks of turmoil following Iran’s disputed presidential election in June.

“The past year saw capital punishment applied extensively to send political messages, to silence opponents or to promote political agendas,” Amnesty interim secretary general Claudio Cordone said in a statement.

“Chinese authorities claim that fewer executions are taking place. If this is true, why won’t they tell the world how many people the state put to death?” he said, releasing Amnesty’s 2009 death sentences and executions report.

China is already under the spotlight due to a row over censorship with internet search giant Google Inc.

Eighteen countries executed a total of at least 714 people last year, and more than 2,000 people were sentenced to death in 56 countries. Amnesty said its figures were conservative and did not include a death count from China, which the rights group believes is in the thousands.

Discounting China, Iraq passed the most death sentences last year, and carried out 120 executions, putting it in third place.

Execution methods recorded included hanging, shooting, beheading, stoning, electrocution and lethal injection.

Iran and Saudi Arabia were singled out for executing juveniles, which Amnesty says violates international law.

MOVING TOWARDS ABOLITION

In the Americas, the United States was the only country to carry out executions last year, but the 52 killings were about half the number recorded a decade earlier in 1999.

As in previous years, the majority of the world’s executions took place in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, but Amnesty said more countries were moving towards abolishing the death penalty, and others were limiting use of the practice.

Amnesty calls for an end to capital punishment. It believes death sentences are often passed after unfair trials and are used disproportionately against the poor, minorities and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities.

The group said two more countries had abolished capital punishment in 2009, Burundi and Togo, bringing the total to 95.

There were no executions in Europe last year, a first since Amnesty began keeping records, with Belarus the only country that continues to use capital punishment.

“Fewer countries than ever before are carrying out executions. As it did with slavery and apartheid, the world is rejecting this embarrassment to humanity,” Cordone said.

(Writing by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by David Stamp)

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Will Sarabjeet be spared the gallows under Pak Govt.’s plans to commute death sentences?

September 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Sep.17 (ANI): The Pakistan government is considering commuting death sentences, but such a step may not help the cause of Sarabjeet Singh, the Indian inmate who has been awarded a death sentence by a Lahore anti-terrorism court in October 1991.

Interior Advisor Rehman Malik said the government has sent a draft to the law division seeking legal opinion on the proposal to commute death sentences.

Rehman, however, said that even if the proposal is accepted there would be no mercy for terrorists.

“They (terrorists) will have to face the death penalty,” The Dawn quoted Malik, as saying.

According to an estimate there are 7000 death inmates in Pakistan at present.

Pakistan security agencies have maintained that Singh had admitted that he was sent to Pakistan to carry out serial bomb blasts in Lahore, Faislabad, and Kasur, and was trained by the Indian Army, and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Singh was awarded the death sentence by a Lahore anti-terrorism court in October 1991.

He challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court, however, the apex court quashed his appeal in September, 2005, saying that the review petition was not filed within the time period as mentioned in the law.

In March 2006, a two member Supreme Court bench dismissed Singh’s petition against his conviction in the Lahore’s Yakki Gate bomb blast in 1990.

Singh has been languishing in Pakistan jails for the last 28 years, as Pakistan has stonewalled release even on humanitarian grounds, despite continuous efforts by Indian diplomatic channels. (ANI)

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Amnesty International asks Zardari to commute all death sentences

June 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Peshawar, June 21 (ANI): The Amnesty International (AI) has asked Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to overturn all the death sentences to life imprisonment to mark the birthday of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto which falls on June 21 (today).

A statement issued by the agency said that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, while addressing the National Assembly on June 21 last year, had proposed that all death sentences be commuted to life imprisonment.

“We urge the president to enact the prime minister’s commutation proposal, and follow the example of Benazir, who commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment after being elected prime minister in 1988,” The Daily Times quoted the statement, as saying.

The humanitarian agency noted that the number of death sentences was decreasing in Pakistan, which was an encouraging sign.

“The AI is encouraged by the decreased number of death sentences and executions in Pakistan in 2008. But Pakistan continues to apply the death penalty and some 7,500 prisoners remain on death row,” it added.

According to an estimate, 236 people were sentenced to death out of which 36 of them were executed in Pakistan in 2008. (ANI)

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7000 prisoners awarded capital punishment in Pak : Amnesty international

May 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, May 29 (ANI): About 7000 prisoners have been awarded the death sentence in Pakistan, among which 36 were awarded the capital punishment last year alone, the international human rights organization, Amnesty International has said.

The international organization, its annual report for the year 2009, said that a total of 236 prisoners were awarded death sentences, but only 36 of them could be actually hanged to death, The News reports.

The report further stated that at least 1102 persons are missing from Balochistan, and the committee formed to recover those missing has only managed to gather information about 43 persons.

It may be noted that last year, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had advocated substituting the death penalty with life imprisonment.

President Asif Ali Zardari, however, issued an ordinance canceling Gilani’s orders and recommending death sentence for cyber crimes too. (ANI)

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Hamas court sentences three Fatah members to death

May 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Gaza – A Hamas military court in the Gaza Strip Sunday sentenced three Fatah members to death after finding them guilty of killing two journalists affiliated with the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip two years ago.

Two of accused were tried in absentia after they fled Gaza when Hamas seized control of the salient in June 2007. The third was present to hear the sentenced pronounced.

Judge Mohammed Nofal said the three were charged with kidnapping and killing Mohammed Abdo and Suleiman al-Ashi, two local journalists who worked for the pro-Hamas daily Falestin, on May 13, 2007.

The three were members of the presidential guard who were in charge of providing security in the Gaza Strip for president Mahmoud Abbas before Hamas gunmen routed his forces in the June 2007 takeover.

The sentence is subject to appeal. Under Palestinian law, carrying out a death sentence requires written approval from the Palestinian president, in this case Abbas himself.

Since taking over the enclave, Hamas has issued death sentences, sometimes in absentia, against opponents, who mostly come from Abbas’ Fatah movement.

None of the sentences were officially carried out, but human rights groups have accused Hamas with killing dozens of its political opponents who fled the Gaza central prison when Israel attacked the facility during its three-week offensive at the turn of the year. (dpa)

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Tibetan exiles protest outside Chinese embassy in New Delhi

April 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Apr 17 (ANI): A group of Tibetan exiles chained themselves to the barbed wire fencing surrounding the Chinese embassy here in protest against the death sentence awarded to Tibetans by Chinese authorities.

Chanting slogans of ‘Free Tibet’, the protesters stood in the scorching sun outside the Chinese embassy demanding independence for their homeland, before being led away by the police.

“We want to stop the recent death sentence in Tibet. It should be stopped in Tibet. We want it immediately to be stopped,” said an unidentified protester.

Tibetans have been protesting against the sentence meted out to them for their role in riots in Lhasa in 2008. Two others got suspended death sentences and another life imprisonment.

Protests by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule on March 14 last year led to the death of 19 people and sparked waves of protests in Tibetan areas.

Tibetan exiles say more than 200 people died in the crackdown.

A year later, a tight web of troops and police throughout Tibetan areas appeared to have deterred large-scale unrest. (ANI)

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Tibetans in India condemn Chinese death sentence for riots

April 16, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Dharamshala/New Delhi, Apr 16 (ANI): Tibetans refugees living in India came out strongly against death sentences awarded to two Tibetans for their alleged role in the spate of riots that rocked Lhasa in 2008.

To express their solidarity with the convicted fellow Tibetans, the office bearers of the Students for Free Tibet (SFT) addressed a press conference here on Wednesday.

Members of the SFT have submitted a petition urging the Chinese Government to stop the execution and also the ill treatment being meted out to the Tibetan prisoners in Lhasa.

At the press conference, Tenzin Cheoying, President, SFT read out the contents of the petition.

“We appeal to your esteem office to give urgent attention to the cases of Lobsang Gyalsten and Loyak – sentenced to death, Tenzin Phuntsok and Kangtsuk – sentenced to death with two year suspension and Dawa Sangpo sentenced to life imprisonment given by Lhasa People’s Intermediate Court on April 8,” said Tenzin Cheoying.

“We do not believe that these trials were conducted according to the international judicial standards. We the Minister of Justice Wu Aiying to review all four death sentences with immediate effect and allow these cases to be impartially investigated with further trials to be conducted openly and with due regard to international legal standards,” added Tenzin Cheoying.

Further, he said that the recent verdict passed by Lhasa People’s Intermediate Court is a blatant attempt to stop the Tibetans from speaking against the Chinese’s regime.

He also appealed to the Chinese Minister of Justice to provide the names and whereabouts of thousands of Tibetans still detained for their suspected role in the last year’s event.

“We also demand that all cases related to the events of March and April 2008 are suspended until a full and independent enquiry into events around these states is held. And a full list of names and whereabouts of the 1200 and more Tibetans still detained in relations to the last year’s event,” added Tenzin Cheoying.

He mentioned that through this petition, the Tibetans in-exile want to implore upon the Chinese Government to stop the execution. He also appealed to the international community to put pressure on China.

Meanwhile, Tibetans residing in New Delhi also staged a peaceful protest rally.

Carrying Tibetan flags and shouting ‘Free Tibet’ slogans, the protesters marched through the streets to condemn the death sentence pronounced by the Chinese administration.

“We have staged this peaceful protest at Janta Mantar because four Tibetans were given death sentence in China. The Chinese Government passed down four death sentences, one life imprisonment. Two was immediate death sentence and two death sentences in within two years time,” said Kunchok, member, Tibetan Youth Congress, New Delhi.

Earlier, China’s official Xinhua news agency had confirmed that two Tibetans have been sentenced to death for their role in riots in Tibet’s regional capital of Lhasa last year.

They were found guilty of ‘igniting fatal fires’ during the riots. (ANI)

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Tibetan exiles stage a naked protest outside Chinese embassy in New Delhi

April 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Apr 13 (ANI): Around ten Tibetan students stripped and locked themselves on the barbed wire fencing surrounding the Chinese embassy here on Monday in protest against Chinese oppression inside Lhasa.

Chanting slogans of ‘Free Tibet’, the protesters stood in the scorching sun outside the Chinese embassy demanding independence for their homeland, before being led away by the police.

The protest came five days after two Tibetans were sentenced to death by Chinese authorities for their role in riots in Tibet’s regional capital of Lhasa in 2008.

Two others got suspended death sentences and another life imprisonment.

Protests by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule on March 14 last year led to the death of 19 people and sparked waves of protests in Tibetan areas.

Tibetan exiles say more than 200 people died in the crackdown.

A year later, a tight web of troops and police throughout Tibetan areas appeared to have deterred large-scale unrest.

A trickle of isolated protests in recent weeks, including a monk who set himself on fire at the Kirti monastery in Sichuan and a bomb thrown at a government office, which caused no casualties, suggested lingering discontent.

Last month, Tibet’s self-exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, lamented that Tibet, which he fled 50 years ago after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, had become a “hell on earth” thanks to repressive rule from Beijing. (ANI)

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Tibetan death sentences get little attention in China

April 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Beijing, Apr.10 (ANI): When two Tibetans were sentenced to death on Wednesday for setting fire to shops during last year’s protest riots in Lhasa, the Chinese authorities chose to tell the rest of the world before they told their own citizens.

The episode illustrates the peculiar way in which news travels in China, where the government controls the traditional media, but the Internet offers an alternative, reports the Christian Science Monitor (CSM).

The news first appeared Wednesday evening on the state-run Xinhua news agency, but it took another 24 hours for it to appear in the Chinese language service. That meant that, while the world knew, not a single paper in China ran a story Thursday about the first death sentences known to have been passed on Tibetans.

The government-run “Tibetan Daily,” published in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital was the only one to reveal that Losang Gyaltse and Loyar had been sentenced to death.

Until then, the only way Chinese citizens could have heard about the death sentences was on the Chinese-language websites of foreign radio stations such as the BBC and VOA. To get onto those sites, you have to go around the “Great Firewall” by using a proxy server to evade government censors.

Curiously, the first mainland site to post the BBC’s story was “Anti-CNN,” a nationalist website that decries the alleged bias of the Western media, but does not appear to appreciate the irony that the only way they can find out what is really happening in their country is to read the Western media surreptitiously. (ANI)

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Tibetans condemn Chinese death sentence for riots, AS

April 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

NEW DELHI (AP) The Tibetan government-in-exile Thursday condemned death sentences that a Chinese court issued to two Tibetans accused of starting deadly fires in last year’s anti-government riots in Tibet. “This kind of arbitrary sentences meted to Tibetans is exacerbated by the fact that there is no due process of law and the courts in the People’s Republic China are political instruments of the authorities,” said the statement.

The death sentences were the first known to be ordered from the March 14 violence in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, that Chinese officials say killed 22 people. The violence led to the most sustained uprising against Chinese rule in decades.

State media say 76 people have been sentenced and more than 950 detained. The sentences were handed down Wednesday, state media and a court officer said.

All death sentences are reviewed by China’s supreme court before being carried out. Beijing claims the protests were part of a violent campaign by the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his supporters to throw off Chinese rule in Tibet and sabotage last August’s Beijing Olympics.

The Dalai Lama has denied the charge and has said he seeks only significant autonomy for Tibet under continued Chinese rule. The Tibetan government-in-exile, based in Dharmsala, India, repeated its calls for the Chinese “to release all political prisoners” arrested in the crackdown.

Last year’s riots broke out after several days of peaceful anti-government protests by Buddhist monks. Despite the heavy security presence in Lhasa, rioters attacked Chinese-owned shops and homes for hours with little opposition.

As sympathy protests some of them violent swept over large swaths of Tibetan-populated areas of western China, authorities launched a massive crackdown that sealed off the region. Tibetan supporters say the death toll in the protests and crackdown is in the dozens.

The government-in-exile Thursday repeated its calls for China to “free all Tibetan prisoners of conscience.”.

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Tibetans protest against death sentence awarded to two persons in Lhasa

April 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Dharamsala, Apr 10 (ANI): The Tibetan government-in-exile came out strongly against award of death sentence to two Tibetans for their role in riots in Tibet’s capital of Lhasa last year.

“The Kashag of Central Tibetan Administration is deeply concerned that two Tibetans have been sentenced to death. Two other have been given suspended life sentence with two years reprieve. The Kashag concern on this kind of arbitrary sentence meted out to Tibetans is exasperated by the fact that there is no due process of law. The courts in the people’s republic of China are political instruments of the authorities,” Thubten Samphel, spokesperson of Tibetan government-in-exile said.

A Tibetan human rights activist termed the death sentence as an example of China trying to flex its muscle.

“They have made the announcement just after the conclusion of G-20 summit in London. I think they are making this kind of announcement with two primary things in mind. First is that they have developed a new kind of confidence that the world community, international community cannot challenge them. They know they have become indispensable in this falling global economic recession time. They know they have their free hand and they can do whatever they want,” said Tenzin Norgey, coordinator of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.

China’s official news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday that the Two Tibetan accused were found guilty of “starting fatal fires” during the riot, citing a court spokesman. Two others got suspended death sentences and another life imprisonment.

Protests by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule on March 14 last year led to the deaths of 19 people and sparked waves of protests in Tibetan areas.

Tibetan exiles say more than 200 people died in the crackdown. (ANI)

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Two sentenced to death for Tibet riots

April 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Lhasa, April 8 (Xinhua) A Chinese court sentenced two people to death after finding them guilty of starting fires during riots in Lhasa in March 2008, a court spokesman said Wednesday.

Two other people were given death sentences with a two-year reprieve, and one person was handed life imprisonment, the spokesman of the Lhasa Municipal Intermediate People’s Court said.

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China sentences four Tibetans to death for March 2008 Lhasa riots

April 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Apr 9 (ANI): A court in Tibet has sentenced four people to death for their part in rioting in Lhasa last year.

Fierce anti-China riots broke out in Lhasa in March last year and spread across Tibet as China was preparing to host the Beijing Olympic Games.

Two of the four death sentences are suspended and could be changed to life sentences if the defendants demonstrate good behaviour. A fifth person was given a life sentence.

The first known death penalty cases in the region since 2002 were handed down yesterday by the Lhasa Municipal Intermediate People’s Court.

Tibetan exile groups have condemned the convictions, which they say are politically motivated and carried out without adequate legal safeguards.

Lobsang Gyaltsen will be executed for arson attacks on two garment shops in central Lhasa on March 14 that killed a shop owner. The same sentence was handed down to Loyak for torching a motorcycle dealership in Deqen Township, which left five people dead, The Guardian reported.

Suspended death penalties were passed on an accomplice, Kangtsuk, and on Tenzin Phuntsok who reportedly confessed to starting a separate lethal fire. A fifth defendant is still being tried.

“The three arson cases are among the crimes that led to the worst consequences in the March 14 riot,” the court spokesman was quoted by Xinhua, as saying. “Their crimes incurred great losses to people’s lives and property and severely undermine the social order, security and stability.”

Free Tibet attacked the sentences, saying that they lacked legal safeguards:

China’s state media claimed the trials were open and the defendants were represented by lawyers, but there was no way to assess this claim as access to Tibet is heavily restricted for foreign reporters. (ANI)

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Two Tibetans get death for role in Lhasa riots

April 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Two Tibetans have been sentenced to death for their role in riots in Tibet’s regional capital of Lhasa last year, China’s official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

They were found guilty of “starting fatal fires” during the riot, the report said, citing a court spokesman. Two others got suspended death sentences and another life imprisonment.

Protests by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule on March 14 last year led to the deaths of 19 people and sparked waves of protests in Tibetan areas. Tibetan exiles say more than 200 people died in the crackdown.

A year later, a tight web of troops and police throughout Tibetan areas appeared to have deterred large-scale unrest.

A trickle of isolated protests in recent weeks, including a monk who set himself on fire at the Kirti monastery in western Sichuan and a bomb thrown at a government office which caused no casualties, suggested lingering discontent.

Last month, Tibet’s self-exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, lamented that Tibet, which he fled 50 years ago after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, had become a “hell on earth” thanks to repressive rule from Beijing.

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Iraqi government urges execution of three Saddam era officials

March 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Iraqi government urges execution of three Saddam era officials Baghdad – The Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Tuesday repeated its call for the execution of three officials from the former regime of Saddam Hussein for genocide, as a dispute over sentencing continued.

Former ministers Ali Hassan al-Majid and Sultan Hashem and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former army chief, were sentenced to death in 2007 for their part in the so-called Anfal campaign against Kurdish civilians and militia in 1988.

Al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam who has since been handed two more death sentences by Iraqi criminal courts, earned the name “Chemical Ali” for his use of poison gas against the Kurdish villagers of Halabja during the campaign.

Iraq’s presidential council, which consists of Kurdish President Jalal Talabani as well as one Sunni and one Shiite vice-president, must approve the execution order, but has yet to do so.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, calling on the council to approve the execution order, said in a statement that “this call denounces the genocide committed against the martyrs of Halabja and their families.”

The delay stems from a political dispute between the government, the presidential council, and authorities in the United States over the execution of Hashem and Mohammed.

“The Americans don’t want to see Hashem executed because he is a valuable political asset in their relations with the Sunnis,” said Joost Hiltermann, deputy Middle East director at the Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group.

“To many Sunnis, he is a hero because of his role in the Iran-Iraq war,” he added. “Al-Maliki is saying it’s all (al-Majid, Hashem and Mohammed) or nothing.” (dpa)

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