Let's equalise equality
Peter Tatchell
March 14, 2007 8:20 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2007/03/peter_tatchell.h=
tml
QUESTION: What is the one thing you would most like to see happen by
this time next year?
We need a comprehensive Equal Rights Act to consolidate and
standardise all equality laws in a single, all-inclusive legal
framework, based on the gold standard of the race equality laws.
Shareholders of the world unite
Jeremy Leggett
March 14, 2007 8:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jeremy_leggett/2007/03/jeremy_leggett.h=
tml
QUESTION: What is the one thing you would most like to see happen by
this time next year?
Insurance company and pension fund investors today routinely invest
hundreds of billions in fossil fuel companies, seeking short-term
returns. But these companies fuel global warming even as they
"succeed", threatening the insurance companies with bankruptcy and the
pension funds with collapse.
Soldiers of misfortune
Martin Bell
March 14, 2007 7:40 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/martin_bell/2007/03/martin_bell.html
QUESTION: What is the one thing you would most like to see happen by
this time next year?
On the issue which above all others produced the Labour landslide
nearly 10 years ago - public trust in public life - the government's
record has been lamentable.
Class in the classroom
Fiona Millar
March 14, 2007 7:20 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/fiona_millar/2007/03/fiona_millar.html
QUESTION: What is the one thing you would most like to see happen by
this time next year?
What do local authorities with the worst records for giving parents
their first choice of school have in common? All are partly or wholly
selective and children still sit the 11-plus. Those same authorities
also embrace some of the most poorly performing schools in the
country; a reminder that the enduring stablemate of the grammar school
is the secondary modern.
Proceeds of war
Inayat Bunglawala
March 14, 2007 7:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/inayat_bunglawala/2007/03/inayat.html
QUESTION: What is the one thing you would most like to see happen by
this time next year?
After a decent interval following his departure from No10, Tony Blair
is widely expected to sign a multi-million pound book deal and also
take to the lucrative international lecture circuit where his
undoubtedly impressive public speaking skills will be in considerable
demand.
Stop taking sides
Sunny Hundal
March 14, 2007 6:40 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sunny_hundal/2007/03/sunny_hundal.html
QUESTION: What is the one thing you would most like to see happen by
this time next year?
On the internet everyone's a victim. Or to be precise, almost every
tribe or grouping has found an outlet and the necessary commentator or
statistics to paint themselves as a victim of oppression. Couple that
with another trend, that people on the internet seem to gravitate
towards those of similar views, and we have a problem.
Send the empties back
Jo Wood
March 14, 2007 6:20 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jo_wood/2007/03/one_thing_1.html
QUESTION: What is the one thing you would most like to see happen by
this time next year?
I would like the government to pull up its eco-friendly socks and
bring in some sensible container deposit legislation (CDL) for
packaging of all shapes and sizes.
An axis of equals
M J Akbar
March 14, 2007 6:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/m_j_akbar/2007/03/axis_of_equals.html
QUESTION: What is the one thing you would most like to see happen by
this time next year?
Actually some of the things I want to happen within a year will
already have happened - the three principal architects of the Iraq war
will be gone, Blair of Britain and Howard of Australia literally; Bush-
Cheney for all practical purposes.
Tyranny unbound
Peter Tatchell
March 13, 2007 10:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2007/03/from_hero_to_tyr=
ant.html
The scenes of violent state repression in Zimbabwe this week are
tragically reminiscent of another time and place. Machine-gun toting
armoured personnel carriers swamp the black townships. Police and
soldiers fire tear gas and live rounds, shooting at least one
protester dead. They beat others with rifle butts, clubs and whips.
Hundreds have been hauled off to interrogation centres where they are,
right now, being beaten and tortured.
We have seen such images many times before - during the apartheid era,
in neighbouring South Africa. The brutality may be similar, but that
is where the comparison ends. In Zimbabwe, it is a black minority that
is terrorising the black majority. The tyranny isn't racial; it's
political. But it is still tyranny - and on a monumental scale.
Comparisons with the savagery of PW Botha's repression in the 1980s
are, if anything, understatements.
Repairing Iraq
Ian Williams
March 13, 2007 9:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ian_williams/2007/03/dont_mention_the_w=
ar_reparatio.html
Why is war torn Iraq still paying for Gulf potentates? And why is no
one mentioning it?
In all the talk about Iraqi oil and development, you would think that
"reparations" was a four-letter word. No one mentions it in diplomatic
circles.
The road to Damascus
Nadim Houry
March 13, 2007 9:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/nadim_houry/2007/03/the_road_to_damascu=
s=2Ehtml
When Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, visits president
Bashar al-Assad of Syria this week, it will effectively end the EU
freeze on high-level contacts with Damascus. On the agenda? Lebanon
and Middle East peace. Important topics indeed. But Solana should not
leave Damascus without raising the issue of Syria's dreadful human
rights record.
Since the Baker-Hamilton report, foreign-policy analysts have argued
tirelessly about how to get Syria to play a constructive role in Iraq,
Lebanon and Palestine. Unfortunately, no one has raised the issue of
how to get Syria to start respecting its international obligations
towards its own citizens.
The watchdog that failed to bark
David Hencke
March 13, 2007 8:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_hencke/2007/03/out_of_commission.=
html
While the swirl of hype and publicity on the cash-for-honours scandal
circles around the latest revelations about emails and documents
surrounding Blair's chief fundraiser, Lord Levy and senior Downing
Street aide, Ruth Turner, one man who is escaping the spotlight of
attention is Sam Younger, chair of the Electoral Commission.
The head of the Scotland Yard investigation, Assistant Commissioner
John Yates, is reported to be unhappy that one plank of his
investigation under the Political Parties Elections and Referendums
Act 2000, on whether the parties obtained hidden donations by getting
uncommercial loans, appears to have been wrecked by the inaction of
the watchdog.
The German exodus
Kate Connolly
March 13, 2007 8:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/kate_connolly/2007/03/the_late_german_w=
riter_wg.html
The late German writer WG Sebald sums up extremely well the mental
blockage that many Germans face when the subject of the country's Nazi
past surfaces. He writes in On the Natural History of Destruction of
"the sense of unparalleled national humiliation felt by millions in
the last years of the war" which had "never really found verbal
expression, and those directly affected by the experience," who
"neither shared it with each other nor passed it on to the next
generation".
No more has that phenomenon been evident than in the recent attempts
to explore the issue of exodus and explusion. As many as 14 million
Germans were forced to abandon their homes and livelihoods in areas
such as East Prussia, Silesia and Pomerania, in the winter of 1944-45
as Russia's Red Army approached. Most sought safety in West Germany
where they were largely encouraged not to talk of their experiences,
but rather to concentrate on integrating into their new
The legacy of Iraq is that the world stands by while Darfur burns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2033186,00.html
An unprecedented plea from 14 UN humanitarian bodies on behalf of the
people of western Sudan has been roundly ignored
Jonathan Freedland
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
I once spoke to a journalist who had covered the war in Bosnia in the
early 1990s. He said that he and his colleagues kept heading into
harm's way, because they believed that once the world knew of the
horrors they had witnessed, the world would be stirred to act. They
filed their reports and waited. Soon enough, they understood. The
world knew what was going on - and yet it did nothing. For some of
those reporters, this experience broke their faith in the power of
journalism. For others, it broke their faith in their fellow human
beings.
Was I a good American in the time of George Bush?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2033238,00.html
Too many of us have done too little to stop the crimes of this White
House. We are waking up but what took us so long?
Rebecca Solnit
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
Was I a good American? How good an American was I? Did I do what I
could to resist the takeover of my country and the brutalisation of my
fellow human beings? How much further could I have gone? Were the
crimes of the Bush administration those that demand you give up your
life and everyday commitments to throw yourself into maximum
resistance? If not, then what were we waiting for? The questions have
troubled me regularly these last five years, because I was one of the
millions of American citizens who did not shut down Guant=E1namo Bay and
stop the other atrocities of the administration.
MPs are voting for a white elephant. And they know it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2033093,00.html
The nuclear deterrent is a cold war relic. Renewing Trident for a
hypothetical conflict only deprives the army of basic resources
Simon Jenkins
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
I can hardly believe that a majority of British MPs will tonight vote
to renew the British nuclear deterrent. Almost all of them, of all
parties, know in their heads that it makes no sense. They lack the
guts to say so, Labour MPs because they want jobs under Gordon Brown,
Conservatives because they love whizzbangs and want to embarrass Tony
Blair by keeping him in power, for reasons that pass comprehension.
Our social dustbins
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2033239,00.html
Damaged and vulnerable women continue to be imprisoned when an
alternative already exists
Juliet Lyon
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
Women's prisons have become our social dustbins. They are now seen as
a stopgap, cut-price provider of drug detox, mental health assessment
and treatment - a refuge for those failed by public services. Twelve
years ago, there were some 1,800 women in jail. Today there are 4,300.
In the wake of six women's deaths at Styal prison, the government
asked Baroness Jean Corston in 2005 to undertake "a review of women
with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system". Her
recommendations are published today. The extent of those "particular
vulnerabilities" are laid out starkly in the report: more than half of
women prisoners have suffered violence at home. One in three have
experienced sexual abuse. A quarter have been in local authority care.
Two-thirds have a neurotic disorder, such as depression or anxiety.
Women prisoners have a much higher rate of severe mental illness such
as schizophrenia: 14% compared with less than 1% in the general
population. Over a third of women who are imprisoned will already have
attempted suicide.
It's all over for homophobia
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2033094,00.html
When gay-bashing is the preserve of mealy-mouthed euphemism, its death
knell has sounded
Zoe Williams
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
The idea is straightforward - fairytales covering homosexual themes
will be introduced into primary schools for pupils aged between four
and 11. I balk at the notion of a "homosexual theme", since what theme
worthy of the name could be pinned down to a sexual preference? Love?
Death? Sex? There is no such thing as a homosexual theme beyond "non-
conformity".
But I am nit-picking. The aim is to normalise homosexuality in the
eyes of children. Fourteen schools and one local authority have taken
up the scheme. "Church groups" disapprove, or at least are credited as
so doing in newspapers trying to stir up disapproval. John Humphrys
disapproves, or at least made a valiant stab at pretending to on the
Today programme yesterday. In conversation with Elizabeth Atkinson,
from the organisation No Outsiders, he kicked off gruffly: "This is
propaganda, isn't it?" "No more so than Cinderella," Atkinson started.
Double-gruffly, Humphrys rejoined, "Well they're fairytales. That's
quite different." But close analysts of the programme, and his voice
in particular, will know his heart wasn't in it.
Nuclear weapons were never the best way to keep the peace
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2033092,00.html
It was only good luck that saved us from global catastrophe during the
cold war years, says Bruce Kent
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
Roy Hattersley is a welcome addition to the anti-Trident majority now
in this country (My unilateral conversion, March 5). I fear, however,
that he still lacks the humility required from a real convert.
He will, I hope, come to accept his share of responsibility for the
ignorance and British hubris which has so contributed to the current
dangerous global crisis. But he is also positively abusive about those
who did not share his previous opinions. They constituted, he says,
"the forces of unreason". Edward Thompson, eminent historian; Dorothy
Hodgkin, distinguished scientist and Nobel prize winner; Martin Ryle,
astronomer royal; Archbishop Thomas Roberts, courageous church
reformer; Lord Fenner Brockway, active until his last days - are all
these to be counted as "the forces of unreason"? Does he think that
such people and thousands like them did nothing more than march up and
down shouting "ban the bomb"?
Snow White, make way for Disney's black princess
Amina Taylor
March 14, 2007 07:54 AM
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/03/snow_white_make_way_for_disney_1.h=
tml
Disney has finally gone and done what many thought was impossible.
Seven decades after Snow White, they're making an animated feature
with a black princess in the lead role. The Frog Princess will
introduce the world to Maddy, a girl from the French Quarter of New
Orleans who we assume must be the royalty of the story.
Growing up as a young girl in Jamaica with a black and white
television, it took my parents getting a rusty old VHS to reveal the
secrets of Disney animation. The world of Sleeping Beauty and Bambi
were comforting: the good guys won and the baddies were usually cast
out of the kingdom. That was great for an hour and a half, but it had
absolutely no relevance to the rest of my life.
Iran's new banknote goes nuclear
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2033141,00.html
Stuart Jeffries
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
What does currency say about national identity? It's a vexed question
now that Iran has issued an "atomic banknote" in which the Islamic
republic touts its nuclear prowess. The new 50,000 rial note (worth
about =A32.80) depicts the nuclear insignia of electrons orbiting an
atom, alongside a beautiful calligraphic legend quoting one of
Muhammad's hadiths. "If the science exists in this constellation, men
from Persia will reach it."
How should Britain respond? Isn't it obvious? We must pulp the new
Adam Smith =A320 note immediately and replace it with one emblazoned
with a Trident nuclear missile hovering over Tehran. On the reverse,
Tony Blair could shake his fist above a caption made of letters cut
from Daily Mail headlines: "I'm gonna do you, Ahmadinejad, yeah?"
Europe leads bid to lure Syria in from the cold
http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,2033220,00.html
=B7 Solana visit trumpeted as first step to end isolation
=B7 Damascus sources rule out any change in policies
Ian Black, Middle East editor
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
Syria is hailing its return from international isolation with a
landmark visit today by the EU's foreign policy chief as diplomacy in
the Middle East intensifies ahead of a key Arab League summit in Saudi
Arabia at the end of this month.
Damascus is trumpeting the talks with Javier Solana as evidence that
the country is coming in from the cold after being largely shunned by
Europe since the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister,
Rafik al-Hariri, two years ago.
Obama loses ground in vital campaign rally
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/story/0,,2033354,00.html
=B7 Latest head-to-head woos Jewish lobby
=B7 Clinton impresses with 'commanding' speech
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
A week ago they were competing for African-American votes in the Deep
South. But late on Monday Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went head
to head for another key demographic group: Jewish voters.
In one of the most important campaign stops yet, supporters from the
Clinton and Obama camps, as well as other presidential hopefuls,
flooded the hallways of the Washington Convention Centre distributing
fliers and shouting through loudhailers in their bid to draw people
in.
White House closes ranks over 'purge' of prosecutors
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2033440,00.html
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Wednesday March 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The White House yesterday rejected calls by Congress for its senior
staff to give evidence in the growing row over the dismissal of eight
federal prosecutors.
Congress is demanding that Karl Rove, George Bush's chief political
adviser, and others appear before an investigation into allegations
that the eight were dismissed on political grounds.
Democratic members of Congress say that some of them had been
resisting pressure by Republicans to speed up an investigation into
alleged Democratic election wrong-doing.
Battered Zimbabwe protesters sent from court to hospital
http://www.guardian.co.uk/zimbabwe/article/0,,2033129,00.html
=B7 Activists to be charged with inciting violence
=B7 Outrage at attacks on Mugabe opponents
Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
Battered and limping, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai,
appeared in a Harare court yesterday before he and more than 50 other
anti-government activists were taken to hospital for medical
treatment.
Mr Tsvangirai had a deep gash on his head that had been sutured, and
his face was swollen. Others were carried into court and many had
bandages and slings.
Amid growing international outrage at the treatment of the activists,
who lawyers say were beaten and tortured after being arrested on
Sunday on their way to a prayer rally, ambulances and vans, under
police escort, ferried the opposition activists to a nearby hospital
for treatment. Lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said the state intended to
charge the activists with incitement to violence and refused to grant
them bail. Under Zimbabwe's security laws they can be held for a
further 72 hours without charges.
Bush leaves Latin America empty-handed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2033082,00.html
Rory Carroll in Caracas, Sibylla Brodzinsky in Bogota and Jo Tuckman
in Mexico City
Wednesday March 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
George Bush wrapped up a tour of Latin America tonight with little to
show for his six-day swing through the region.
The US president was due to head home with no substantive deals or
immediate evidence that the public relations offensive had salvaged
Washington's reputation in the five countries he visited.
No breakthroughs had been expected but Mr Bush hoped to soften
hostility towards himself and his administration's policies on trade
and immigration by expressing concern for the region's poor.
Surreal Berlusconi trial begins as it means to go on
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2032995,00.html
Court proceedings against former Italian prime minister and David
Mills kick off with mixture of high drama and teeth-grinding tedium
John Hooper in Milan
Tuesday March 13, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The long-awaited trial of David Mills and Silvio Berlusconi began
today in dramatic fashion with a defendant locked in a cage of the
sort the Italian judiciary usually reserves for Mafia dons.
The unshaven figure in jeans and anorak did not look like Italy's
richest man. Nor did he look like the estranged husband of the culture
secretary, Tessa Jowell.
But he did look mighty astonished as three judges, a clerk, a
prosecutor, three defending counsel and their juniors, a lawyer
representing the Italian state, and the entire press room of the Milan
courthouse filed in to hear him get eight months. For reasons that
were never entirely clear, Salvatore Sangiorgio had to be sentenced
and led away in handcuffs before the court could get on with trying
Britain's most talked about offshore corporate lawyer and his
erstwhile client.
Fears of US mortgage crisis as homeowners face 12% interest
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2033234,00.html
=B7 Shares fall on worries for wider economy
=B7 Research predicts 2.2m defaults on homeloans
Larry Elliott and Jill Treanor
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
The US central bank was under pressure last night to underpin the
country's troubled housing market as figures showed an increasing
number of US homeowners falling behind with their mortgage payments
and having their properties repossessed.
The problems had a knock-on effect on Wall Street where the Dow Jones
Industrial Average fell 242 points to close at 12,075 amid fears the
malaise in the housing market would infect the rest of the economy.
There were signs of mounting problems for firms that have aggressively
sold home loans to people with poor credit ratings - so-called sub-
prime mortgages.
Nepalese PM's U-turn may seal monarchy's fate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2033267,00.html
Randeep Ramesh, South Asia correspondent
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
The Nepalese monarchy, which has ruled the kingdom for almost 240
years, was effectively ended yesterday when the country's previously
pro-monarchist prime minister said it was time to clear the way for a
republic.
Just a year after street protests stripped King Gyanendra of power and
authority Girija Prasad Koirala, the octogenarian prime minister, said
the king's actions and words in the past few months had changed his
mind about having a ceremonial king. What has incensed Mr Koirala, and
many members of the 330-seat interim assembly, was a defiant
proclamation from the palace on democracy day last month. The king,
viewed by some older Nepalis as a divine incarnation, sought to defend
the monarchy saying it was "in accordance with the people's
aspirations" and rebuked politicians intent on curbing his influence
in the country.
=A3700 for a child? Guatemalan 'baby factory' deals in misery and hope
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2033098,00.html
US under pressure to curb trade as 1% of state's babies go abroad
Jo Tuckman in Guatemala City
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
With its obsequious doormen and bland interior, the Guatemala City
Marriott could be just another business hotel anywhere in the world.
If it weren't for all the babies.
"Ooooh, you beautiful little girl," one prospective mother from
Virginia coos as she lifts a nine-month-old above her head. The
pianist in the lobby is playing Beatles ballads, the new father of
another infant orders a club sandwich at the next table, and a third
baby is pushed past in a buggy. "You're not mine yet, but you will be
soon."
US general calls gays immoral
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gayrights/story/0,,2033364,00.html
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
Gay rights groups yesterday criticised the head of the US joint chiefs
of staff, General Peter Pace, over an interview in which he described
homosexuals as "immoral".
Aides to Gen Pace insisted he was not planning to apologise. But he
later put out a statement that he described as a clarification.
In a taped interview accompanying an interview in the Chicago Tribune
on Monday, Gen Pace said: "I believe that homosexual acts between
individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts. I
do not believe that the armed forces of the United States are well
served by saying through our policies that it's OK to be immoral in
any way."
Blair's secret weapon in Paisley talks: religion
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2033281,00.html
=B7 PM wooed DUP leader by swapping Christian texts
=B7 Two men brought closer by 'religious love affair'
Nicholas Watt, Owen Bowcott and Patrick Wintour
Wednesday March 14, 2007
The Guardian
Tony Blair has forged a special bond with the Rev Ian Paisley, the DUP
leader who holds the future of the Northern Ireland peace process in
his hands, by discussing their common interest in and commitment to
Christianity.
Spearheading a government charm offensive to win round the one time
Presbyterian firebrand, the two men have been swapping religious
textbooks over the past year.
Bush ally accused of attempting to politicise US justice
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2356024.ece
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 14 March 2007
President Bush's attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, was fighting for
his political life last night as a major scandal erupted over the
firing of eight politically-inconvenient federal prosecutors - a move
many senior Democrats described as a brazen attempt by the White House
to compromise the independence of the US justice system.
Mr Gonzales, one of President Bush's oldest and most loyal cohorts,
acknowledged in a hastily-convened news conference that "mistakes were
made" but said he stood by his decision to dismiss the eight
prosecutors at the end of last year.
Halliburton: From Bush's favourite to a national disgrace
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2355966.ece
It is a symbol of American cronyism, the beneficiary of lucrative Iraq
contracts thanks to its relationship with ***** Cheney. Now Halliburton
is relocating to Dubai - and US politicians are outraged. By Andrew
Buncombe
Published: 14 March 2007
The story begins in 1919 with Erle Halliburton sitting up late one
night with his wife, Vida, worrying about money. Squeezed together in
their one-room home in the Oklahoma dustbowl town of Wilson, the
couple were trying to work out how to meet the next payment on
Halliburton's fledgling business, the New Method Oil Well Cementing
Company.
At about 1am, so the story goes, the pale light from a small lamp
reflected off his wife's wedding ring. "I sat there admiring it when
the thought came to me," Vida would later tell Jeffrey Rodengen,
author of The Legend of Halliburton. "Here is the money we need. At
first hubby would not listen to me... but I argued we could get it
back. So we went to sleep all thrilled with the new idea of cementing,
the new means of getting jobs, and the money."
More than 100,000 cross jungle to flee Sri Lanka war
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2355951.ece
By Justin Huggler, Asia Correspondent
Published: 14 March 2007
Tens of thousands of refugees are streaming out of eastern Sri Lanka
as fighting between government forces and the Tamil Tigers worsens. So
many people have fled that there is no room left in refugee camps, and
many are being forced to sleep rough with only the trees for shelter.
"One family I met this week lost everything they had in the tsunami;
then, three months ago, just when they had finished building their new
home, it took a direct hit from a shell," said Kolitha Wickramage, of
the British charity Merlin, which is providing medical aid to
refugees. "Along with others from their village, the family fled in
the middle of the night, crossing thick jungle and deep rivers. They
described how several children drowned and had to be buried under
leaves."
Father: 'I can't believe nobody is held responsible for the death of
my son'
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2355954.ece
By Kim Sengupta
Published: 14 March 2007
Dawood Musa still feels a deep sense of loss and anger four years
after the death of his son Baha - and countless promises from Britain
that he will get justice.
"I cannot believe that no one is held responsible for my son's death.
I feel a fool for believing that the British Army would investigate
their own soldiers properly," he told The Independent yesterday.
"When he was first killed the British offered me compensation, blood
money, to settle the matter, as they had done with so many others, but
I said 'no', I wanted them to investigate what happened, I wanted to
find out why my son died in such a terrible way.
.
|
