Advocates for the unemployed have cheered a push by the Obama administration to ban discrimination against the jobless. But business groups and their allies are calling the effort unnecessary and counterproductive. The job creation bill that President Obama sent to Congress earlier this month includes a provision that would allow unsuccessful job applicants to sue
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• All tonight’s latest scores are here • The world’s league tables are here • Email barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts • Or follow him on ‘The Twitter’ • Follow Man Utd v Basel here 12 min: “I am not in any way condoning the use of ‘Munich’ as a perjorative, and I find ‘Munich’ chants horrible and unacceptable, but …” writes Don. “I have heard all sorts of vile comments, both from individuals and organised, at football grounds all over the country, and those are almost never, ever, commented upon in the media- or addressed at the time, for that matter. I believe that if the media and Manchester United could refrain from knee-jerking to every instance of ‘Munich’, that would take the word’s power away from the ‘knuckleheads’ who say it looking for a response.” 10 min: Deep in Manchester City territory, Bayern Munich win a throw-in and take it quickly, catching Manchester City’s players unaware and allowing right-back Rafinho to try his luck from the corner of the penalty area. His effort goes high and wide. 9 min: Manchester City attack down the left flank, with four men committed to the outskirts of the Bayern penalty area. Edin Dzeko runs down a blind alley, is dispossessed by a defender and the home side clear their lines. 8 min: Sergio Aguero sends a weighted through-ball down the inside left channel for David Silva to chase. His pass isn’t weighted enough and the ball runs out of play for the Spanish winger can chase it down. 6 min: David Silva is hobbling a little with an ankle injury after a challenge from Jerome Boateng that he thought was worthy of a penalty. Referee Viktor Kassai didn’t concur. 4 min: Micah Richards bombs down the right flank and drills a low cross to Edin Dzeko, unmarked at the near post. his effort is weak and doesn’t trouble Manuel Neuer unduly. That was a glorious opportunity to put Manchester City one up, but he just didn’t put his boot through the ball. 3 min: Not much going on so far, with the ball spending most of its time being passed around midfield, with play occasionally punctuated by the occasional foul. 1 min: Manchester City kick off, lining up in a 4-4-2 and playing from left to right. Within 40 seconds, Bayern Munich defensive midfielder Luiz Gustavo goes down in a heap under a heavy challenge, but is quickly on his feet, grimacing with pain but fit to continue. Not long now: Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack. The teams march out the tunnel, with Bayern Munich’s players wearing red shirts, shorts and socks with white trim. Manchester City’s wear their customary sky blue shirts and shorts, with blue and white hooped socks. Philipp Lahm wins the toss after Vincent Kompany is asked to call “yellow or blue” (it’s probably a token from one of the Oktoberfest tents) and opts for yellow. Hats off to the Manchester City delegation , led by life president Bernard Halford, current assistant manager Brian Kidd and former captain and manager Tony Book, who laid a wreath in the Manchesterplatz in Munich to commemorate the Munich air disaster earlier today. It’s common knowledge that 23 people died when the plane that was carrying them crashed on the runway on 6 February 1958, but many of those knucklehead City fans who spent Saturday afternoon at Goodison Park referring to Phil Neville as “a dirty Munich bastard” may not be aware that one of those who perished was the journalist Frank Swift, a former City goalkeeper. Or perhaps they are aware, but just don’t care. Who knows? How Bayern Munich will line up: It looks like they’ll go with a 4.2-3-1, with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Luiz Gustavo screening the back four and Mario Gomez playing alone in front of a three-man support act comprised of Franck Ribery and Thomas Muller on the left and right of Toni Kroos. Some scene-setting: On Sky Sports, former Bayern Munich legend Alan McInally speaks from his position in the Allianz Arena. “There’s a lot of German people really looking forward to this because Manchester City have come on the scene and spent a lot money,” he says, adding that the same folk would like to see their team put City back in their box after Roberto Mancini promised, in the immediate aftermath of his side’s draw with Napoli, that City would beat Bayern Munich in Munich. Bayern Munich: Neuer, Rafinha, Van Buyten, Boateng, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Gustavo, Muller, Kroos, Ribery, Gomez. Subs: Butt, Petersen, Robben, Usami, Contento, Alaba, Tymoschuk. Man City: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Toure, Clichy, Nasri, Barry, Toure Yaya, Silva, Aguero, Dzeko. Subs: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Lescott, Milner, Kolarov, Tevez, De Jong. Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary) Good evening all. Manchester City’s players will be hoping their travelling supporters are sober enough to unhand their steins and lurch from the Oktoberfest Schottenhamel tent to the Allianz Arena for their first away fixture in the Champions League this evening. City’s task could hardly be more daunting as they march into the belly of a Bayern beast that has won its last nine Bundesliga and Champions League matches, scoring 26 goals and conceding none. Yes, none. Nada. Nil. Null. Since shipping the only goal of the game against Borussia Mönchengladbach on the opening day of the season, Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has not conceded for 838 minutes. For anyone who’s interested, the world record for the length of time a a goalkeeper has gone without conceding is held by Geraldo Pereira de Matos Filho of Vasco Da Gama and stands at a whopping 1,816 minutes. That’s the length of time it takes to boil 602 eggs, presuming you like them very runny and do them one after the other in the same saucepan, rather than all together in one big pot. Anyway, I digress … With Bayern top of the group having torpedoed the Yellow Submarine of Villarreal in their opening game, Manchester City are already playing catch-up after creditable but ultimately disappointing draw at home with Napoli on their maiden Champions League voyage. ” It is fantastic to play against a club like Bayern,” said Roberto Mancini in the run-up to the game. “We do not want to lose the game, that is for sure. We want to win it – as we always want to win. But we have to improve a lot. We are a good team already, but if we want to become a team like Bayern, to become part of the history of football, we have to learn a lot; we have just played one game in the Champions League.” Bayern manager Jupp Heynckes, who takes on English opposition in Europe for the first time this evening despite 139 previous matches, was equally complimentary when discussing his opposite number. “They have an Italian coach, but still they play quite attacking football,” he said. “We anticipate a tactical game on a very high level. For viewers it will very, very interesting. The type of players they have tells us how we can expect them to play – quite attacking! But we are in a good shape and I am confident we can improve further. We are very well prepared. Man City have a very strong team but so do we. It will be a challenge for both clubs.” Heynckes revealed that former City player Jérôme Boateng will start against old club tonight, while Arjen Robben, Mario Gomez, Daniel Van Buyten and Luiz Gustavo all returned from injury to play against Bayer Leverkusen last weekend. Ivica Olić and Breno (knee and under arrest on suspicion of an arson attack on his own house) miss out tonight, while Holger Badstuber has flu and will see how he feels later. For Manchester City, Mario Balotelli will sit this one out on the naughty step, while Nigel de Jong is still suffering from an ankle injury he picked up against Swansea City back in August. We’ll bring you the line-ups just as soon as they appear on the news wires. Or Twitter, which tends to be a quicker, if less reliable source of news than the actual news wires these days. Champions League 2011-12 Champions League Bayern Munich Manchester City Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Michael Jackson doctor trial begins with jury told of singer’s final moments
September 27, 2011 No Comment
Photos of Jackson lying dead in a hospital bed shown at LA manslaughter trial of Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray More than two years after Michael Jackson’s death from an overdose of a powerful surgical anaesthetic, the irrepressible circus surrounding the King of Pop was back in full swing on Tuesday as the personal physician who attended to him in his dying hours stood trial for involuntary manslaughter. Fans with gold “MJ” armbands and T-shirts bearing the silkscreen likeness of their idol crammed the courthouse in downtown Los Angeles for a glimpse of the courtroom entourage – and a shot at one of the few open seats in the public gallery. Bloggers, gossip columnists and news crews were also out in force, just as they were at Jackson’s child molestation trial in 2005 and at the rehearsals for the ill-fated final tour – hauntingly named This Is It – that never took place in 2009. Inside judge Michael Pastor’s courtroom, an altogether more sober David Walgren, representing the district attorney’s office, delivered an opening statement laying out the evidence that Conrad Murray was single-handedly responsible for Jackson’s death. “The acts and omissions of Michael Jackson’s personal doctor, Conrad Murray, directly led to his premature death at the age of 50,” Walgren said. “He … repeatedly acted with gross negligence, repeatedly denied appropriate care to his patient … it was Dr Murray’s repeated incompetent and unskilled acts that led to Michael Jackon’s death.” Using a video monitor to present still photographs, charts, extracts from voicemail and other recordings, Walgren walked the jury through Jackson’s final two and a half months. Grim photos of Jackson lying dead in a hospital bed were juxtaposed with a picture of the singer rehearsing the day before his death. In that period, Murray ordered a staggering 15.5 litres of the surgical anaesthetic propofol, the prosecutor said. Walgren alleged that Murray relied on the drug – which Jackson referred to as his “milk” – to get the singer to sleep every night, even though it has no known application as a sleeping aid, and routinely administered it without monitoring equipment to check Jackson’s response. The prosecutor gave a stark narrative of how Murray realised he had lost his patient – apparently while he was on the phone to a cocktail waitress he regarded as his girlfriend – on the morning of 25 June 2009. This was just moments after he emailed an insurance agent for Jackson’s upcoming tour and said that press reports of health problems were entirely “fallacious”. Walgren said Murray did not ask his girlfriend, Sade Anding, to call the emergency services. Nor did he ask Jackson’s personal assistant, Michael Williams, when they spoke about 20 minutes later. Instead, according to the prosecutor, Murray said “Mr Jackson had a bad reaction” and urged Williams to come over to the star’s plush hillside mansion right away. When the paramedics who eventually arrived asked Murray what he had given Jackson, he made no mention of propofol. Nor did he mention it to the emergency room team at UCLA Medical Center where Jackson was pronounced dead shortly after. Only two days after Jackson’s death, according to Walgren, did he acknowledge to the police that he had administered the drug – and then said he had injected just 25mg, diluted with another drug called lidocaine. “The evidence will reveal that much more than 25mg was given to put Michael Jackson to sleep,” Walgren told the jury. Murray, crisply dressed in a white shirt and pale blue tie, showed no reaction as Walgren painted him as a man willing to abandon his medical responsibilities to earn a lucrative $150,000 per month paycheque. He was equally impassive as Walgren characterised his activities in the minutes after realising Jackson was dead as those of a man frantic not to be caught. Also in attendance were Jackson’s parents, Joe and Katherine, and his magician, Majestic Magnificent. Walgren described how Alberto Alvarez, who also worked for Jackson, came into the upstairs bedroom where Jackson’s lifeless body was laid out on the all-white bed covers and saw Murray administering CPR with one hand. Murray, according to Alvarez’s testimony, told him to grab a bag and started filling it with medicine vials and a saline bag which he told Alvarez to get rid of. Alvarez was also struck by the sight of a catheter running out of Jackson’s penis – a urine-collecting device usually used on patients knocked unconscious for major surgery. A jug of urine sat on a chair, and the jacket and trousers Jackson had worn to a rehearsal the night before lay strewn on the floor. Walgren’s opening statement was relatively brief, lasting about an hour and half, and was expected to be followed by the defence. Murray’s lawyers have previously indicated they intend to place much of the blame for the death on Jackson himself, characterising him as a propofol addict whom Murray tried in vain to wean away from the drug. United States Michael Jackson trial California Michael Jackson Andrew Gumbel guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Groupon employees have filed a class action lawsuit against the company claiming unpaid overtime, the second such suit filed against the daily deals website in the past month. This time around, Groupon’s so-called “deal vetters”—a position that no longer exists—say they weren’t paid overtime when working more than…
Continue reading …Yesterday she was a ” Satanic she-devil” ; today, Amanda Knox is Jessica Rabbit—according to a defense lawyer. Giulia Bongiorno told the court today that Knox isn’t the “femme fatale” prosecutors are describing, but a loving and faithful woman—like the cartoon character from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? , the AP reports….
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Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Tripoli Military Council, issues warning after administration negotiations founder Libya’s Islamist groups “will not allow” secular politicians to exclude or marginalise them in the intensifying battle for power in the post-Gaddafi era, the country’s most powerful Islamist leader has said. Abdel Hakim Belhaj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and founder of a jihadi group that was later disbanded, appears to be firing a shot across the bows of liberal, western-backed rivals after negotiations over broadening the rebel administration foundered. “We must resist attempts by some Libyan politicians to exclude some of the participants in the revolution,” Belhaj writes in the Guardian. “Their political myopia renders them unable to see the huge risks of such exclusion, or the serious … reaction of the parties that are excluded.” More than a month since Tripoli fell to rebel brigades backed by Nato, the National Transitional Council (NTC) has failed to expand to be more representative, generating a sense of division and drift about the future that western diplomats and many Libyans admit is worrying. It is now clear there will be no deal before the liberation of the whole country is formally declared. That requires the defeat of Gaddafi loyalists in the deposed leader’s coastal hometown of Sirte, where heavy fighting continued on Tuesday. In Bani Walid, south of Tripoli, there is a stalemate. “Consultations have led to a decision to postpone the formation of a government until after liberation,” NTC member Mustafa el-Huni said in Benghazi. The scale of the political challenge ahead is enormous in a country that has not held an election since 1952 and is just emerging from 41 years of dictatorship. Belhaj – who was transferred to Libya with the help of the CIA and MI6 to serve seven years in Gaddafi’s most infamous prison – was the head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which fought in Afghanistan until abandoning its jihadi ideas and disbanding in 2009. It then became the Libyan Islamic Movement for Change. He is seen as the leader of the country’s Islamist camp, his own and like-minded rebel brigades directly armed and financed by the Gulf state of Qatar, and his military council effectively controlling the capital. The Libyan national army, which includes many former Gaddafi officers, and answers to the NTC, looks like the junior partner. Belhaj is close to Ali Sallabi, an influential cleric who lived in exile before returning after the start of the revolution in Benghazi. Sallabi angered many Libyans in a recent interview with Qatari-owned al-Jazeera TV in which he directly attacked Mahmoud Jibril, the NTC’s prime minister-designate. Jibril is a technocratic figure who did much to drum up western support for the Libyan rebels but he has emerged as the focus for bitter debates about the future. Jibril is resented by some for his role in promoting economic development under the aegis of Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the former leader’s son, who was embraced by the west as a reformer until the uprising. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the NTC head, had already acknowledged that “differences in views” had delayed a deal, which is also complicated by regional rivalries. Misrata, which suffered badly during the uprising, is insistent that its position be recognised. “We are faced with the Libyan mentality that every tribe, every region, every city has a share in the new government,” Jibril said. One analyst in Tripoli said: “Jibril and others appear to be offering an expanded NTC with some extra ministerial posts, but those outside want something much more fundamental – a fully representative council which would then elect a transitional government.” Nato said on Tuesday that about 200,000 Libyan civilians were still threatened by Gaddafi loyalists, mainly in Sirte and Bani Walid. “Remaining Gaddafi forces refuse to recognise their defeat,” said a spokesman. RAF Tornados were said to have been in action on both fronts on Monday, hitting ammunition stores, a psychological warfare centre and a firing position. Libya Middle East Africa Arab and Middle East unrest Islam Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Tripoli Military Council, issues warning after administration negotiations founder Libya’s Islamist groups “will not allow” secular politicians to exclude or marginalise them in the intensifying battle for power in the post-Gaddafi era, the country’s most powerful Islamist leader has said. Abdel Hakim Belhaj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and founder of a jihadi group that was later disbanded, appears to be firing a shot across the bows of liberal, western-backed rivals after negotiations over broadening the rebel administration foundered. “We must resist attempts by some Libyan politicians to exclude some of the participants in the revolution,” Belhaj writes in the Guardian. “Their political myopia renders them unable to see the huge risks of such exclusion, or the serious … reaction of the parties that are excluded.” More than a month since Tripoli fell to rebel brigades backed by Nato, the National Transitional Council (NTC) has failed to expand to be more representative, generating a sense of division and drift about the future that western diplomats and many Libyans admit is worrying. It is now clear there will be no deal before the liberation of the whole country is formally declared. That requires the defeat of Gaddafi loyalists in the deposed leader’s coastal hometown of Sirte, where heavy fighting continued on Tuesday. In Bani Walid, south of Tripoli, there is a stalemate. “Consultations have led to a decision to postpone the formation of a government until after liberation,” NTC member Mustafa el-Huni said in Benghazi. The scale of the political challenge ahead is enormous in a country that has not held an election since 1952 and is just emerging from 41 years of dictatorship. Belhaj – who was transferred to Libya with the help of the CIA and MI6 to serve seven years in Gaddafi’s most infamous prison – was the head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which fought in Afghanistan until abandoning its jihadi ideas and disbanding in 2009. It then became the Libyan Islamic Movement for Change. He is seen as the leader of the country’s Islamist camp, his own and like-minded rebel brigades directly armed and financed by the Gulf state of Qatar, and his military council effectively controlling the capital. The Libyan national army, which includes many former Gaddafi officers, and answers to the NTC, looks like the junior partner. Belhaj is close to Ali Sallabi, an influential cleric who lived in exile before returning after the start of the revolution in Benghazi. Sallabi angered many Libyans in a recent interview with Qatari-owned al-Jazeera TV in which he directly attacked Mahmoud Jibril, the NTC’s prime minister-designate. Jibril is a technocratic figure who did much to drum up western support for the Libyan rebels but he has emerged as the focus for bitter debates about the future. Jibril is resented by some for his role in promoting economic development under the aegis of Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the former leader’s son, who was embraced by the west as a reformer until the uprising. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the NTC head, had already acknowledged that “differences in views” had delayed a deal, which is also complicated by regional rivalries. Misrata, which suffered badly during the uprising, is insistent that its position be recognised. “We are faced with the Libyan mentality that every tribe, every region, every city has a share in the new government,” Jibril said. One analyst in Tripoli said: “Jibril and others appear to be offering an expanded NTC with some extra ministerial posts, but those outside want something much more fundamental – a fully representative council which would then elect a transitional government.” Nato said on Tuesday that about 200,000 Libyan civilians were still threatened by Gaddafi loyalists, mainly in Sirte and Bani Walid. “Remaining Gaddafi forces refuse to recognise their defeat,” said a spokesman. RAF Tornados were said to have been in action on both fronts on Monday, hitting ammunition stores, a psychological warfare centre and a firing position. Libya Middle East Africa Arab and Middle East unrest Islam Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of Tripoli Military Council, issues warning after administration negotiations founder Libya’s Islamist groups “will not allow” secular politicians to exclude or marginalise them in the intensifying battle for power in the post-Gaddafi era, the country’s most powerful Islamist leader has said. Abdel Hakim Belhaj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and founder of a jihadi group that was later disbanded, appears to be firing a shot across the bows of liberal, western-backed rivals after negotiations over broadening the rebel administration foundered. “We must resist attempts by some Libyan politicians to exclude some of the participants in the revolution,” Belhaj writes in the Guardian. “Their political myopia renders them unable to see the huge risks of such exclusion, or the serious … reaction of the parties that are excluded.” More than a month since Tripoli fell to rebel brigades backed by Nato, the National Transitional Council (NTC) has failed to expand to be more representative, generating a sense of division and drift about the future that western diplomats and many Libyans admit is worrying. It is now clear there will be no deal before the liberation of the whole country is formally declared. That requires the defeat of Gaddafi loyalists in the deposed leader’s coastal hometown of Sirte, where heavy fighting continued on Tuesday. In Bani Walid, south of Tripoli, there is a stalemate. “Consultations have led to a decision to postpone the formation of a government until after liberation,” NTC member Mustafa el-Huni said in Benghazi. The scale of the political challenge ahead is enormous in a country that has not held an election since 1952 and is just emerging from 41 years of dictatorship. Belhaj – who was transferred to Libya with the help of the CIA and MI6 to serve seven years in Gaddafi’s most infamous prison – was the head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which fought in Afghanistan until abandoning its jihadi ideas and disbanding in 2009. It then became the Libyan Islamic Movement for Change. He is seen as the leader of the country’s Islamist camp, his own and like-minded rebel brigades directly armed and financed by the Gulf state of Qatar, and his military council effectively controlling the capital. The Libyan national army, which includes many former Gaddafi officers, and answers to the NTC, looks like the junior partner. Belhaj is close to Ali Sallabi, an influential cleric who lived in exile before returning after the start of the revolution in Benghazi. Sallabi angered many Libyans in a recent interview with Qatari-owned al-Jazeera TV in which he directly attacked Mahmoud Jibril, the NTC’s prime minister-designate. Jibril is a technocratic figure who did much to drum up western support for the Libyan rebels but he has emerged as the focus for bitter debates about the future. Jibril is resented by some for his role in promoting economic development under the aegis of Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the former leader’s son, who was embraced by the west as a reformer until the uprising. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the NTC head, had already acknowledged that “differences in views” had delayed a deal, which is also complicated by regional rivalries. Misrata, which suffered badly during the uprising, is insistent that its position be recognised. “We are faced with the Libyan mentality that every tribe, every region, every city has a share in the new government,” Jibril said. One analyst in Tripoli said: “Jibril and others appear to be offering an expanded NTC with some extra ministerial posts, but those outside want something much more fundamental – a fully representative council which would then elect a transitional government.” Nato said on Tuesday that about 200,000 Libyan civilians were still threatened by Gaddafi loyalists, mainly in Sirte and Bani Walid. “Remaining Gaddafi forces refuse to recognise their defeat,” said a spokesman. RAF Tornados were said to have been in action on both fronts on Monday, hitting ammunition stores, a psychological warfare centre and a firing position. Libya Middle East Africa Arab and Middle East unrest Islam Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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Tamils at risk of being detained and tortured as result of UK Border Agency action, claims Freedom from Torture Britain is being urged to halt plans to deport a planeload of Tamils to Sri Lanka on Wednesday amid fears they will be at risk of being detained and tortured on arrival. Up to 50 failed asylum seekers are due to be forcibly removed from the country aboard an aircraft chartered by the UK Border Agency. The plan has alarmed a number of NGOs, including a medical charity that treats victims of torture, which fears the British government cannot be sure that those deported will be safe in Sri Lanka. Freedom from Torture, formerly known as the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, said it received 199 referrals for clinical assistance for Sri Lankans last year and a similar number this year. It said it had clinical evidence that a number of these people have been tortured in Sri Lanka since the end of the civil war in May 2009, some after being returned to the country. The NGOs are warning there is credible evidence that torture is still taking place and anyone suspected of being linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers, is particularly at risk. Human Rights Watch, the New York-based NGO, said the British government “needed to be extremely careful” about returning any Tamils to Sri Lanka. Brad Adams, the organisation’s Asia director, said: “The Sri Lankan government continues to show shocking disregard for the due process rights of anyone deemed linked to the Tamil Tigers. Those detained have been tortured and ‘disappeared’.” Amnesty International said it had documented evidence that failed asylum seekers had suffered torture in Sri Lanka after being removed from Australia. In an account given to Freedom from Torture, one said: “They tortured me by removing my clothes and hitting me with burning irons. They kept me for two days and my body was all swollen. They showed me photographs of LTTE members, including my brother’s picture, and asked me what he was doing now.” Keith Best, the chief executive of Freedom from Torture, has written to Damian Green, the Home Office immigration minister asking whether any arrangements are in place to ensure the safety of people removed to Sri Lanka. He said: “I know you will be mindful of the repercussions for the reputation of the UK if those who are returned then face torture.” The UK Border Agency deported 555 people to Sri Lanka last year, 235 of them failed asylum seekers. Three months ago, Human Rights Watch warned Theresa May, the home secretary, that a group of 26 people facing deportation on a single flight were “at significant risk of persecution” in Sri Lanka. That deportation went ahead, with the government saying the Border Agency was “not aware of any difficulties” that those individuals may have subsequently faced. An agency spokesperson said: “We only undertake returns to Sri Lanka when we are satisfied the individual has no international protection needs. The European court of human rights has ruled that not all Tamil asylum seekers require protection.” But the agency would not say what arrangements, if any, the British government had in place to monitor the treatment of those who were returned. The agency also declined to identify the airport from which the plane is due to depart on Wednesday afternoon. The Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers were both accused of committing war crimes towards the end of the civil war. A US diplomatic cable leaked to WikiLeaks showed that American diplomats believed the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, bore responsibility for many of the alleged crimes. The US ambassador in Colombo, Patricia Butenis, wrote that one of the reasons there was such little progress towards a genuine Sri Lankan inquiry was that Rajapaksa and his former army commander, Sarath Fonseka, were largely responsible, and that “there are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power”. Sri Lanka Immigration and asylum Torture Human rights Ian Cobain guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Tamils at risk of being detained and tortured as result of UK Border Agency action, claims Freedom from Torture Britain is being urged to halt plans to deport a planeload of Tamils to Sri Lanka on Wednesday amid fears they will be at risk of being detained and tortured on arrival. Up to 50 failed asylum seekers are due to be forcibly removed from the country aboard an aircraft chartered by the UK Border Agency. The plan has alarmed a number of NGOs, including a medical charity that treats victims of torture, which fears the British government cannot be sure that those deported will be safe in Sri Lanka. Freedom from Torture, formerly known as the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, said it received 199 referrals for clinical assistance for Sri Lankans last year and a similar number this year. It said it had clinical evidence that a number of these people have been tortured in Sri Lanka since the end of the civil war in May 2009, some after being returned to the country. The NGOs are warning there is credible evidence that torture is still taking place and anyone suspected of being linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers, is particularly at risk. Human Rights Watch, the New York-based NGO, said the British government “needed to be extremely careful” about returning any Tamils to Sri Lanka. Brad Adams, the organisation’s Asia director, said: “The Sri Lankan government continues to show shocking disregard for the due process rights of anyone deemed linked to the Tamil Tigers. Those detained have been tortured and ‘disappeared’.” Amnesty International said it had documented evidence that failed asylum seekers had suffered torture in Sri Lanka after being removed from Australia. In an account given to Freedom from Torture, one said: “They tortured me by removing my clothes and hitting me with burning irons. They kept me for two days and my body was all swollen. They showed me photographs of LTTE members, including my brother’s picture, and asked me what he was doing now.” Keith Best, the chief executive of Freedom from Torture, has written to Damian Green, the Home Office immigration minister asking whether any arrangements are in place to ensure the safety of people removed to Sri Lanka. He said: “I know you will be mindful of the repercussions for the reputation of the UK if those who are returned then face torture.” The UK Border Agency deported 555 people to Sri Lanka last year, 235 of them failed asylum seekers. Three months ago, Human Rights Watch warned Theresa May, the home secretary, that a group of 26 people facing deportation on a single flight were “at significant risk of persecution” in Sri Lanka. That deportation went ahead, with the government saying the Border Agency was “not aware of any difficulties” that those individuals may have subsequently faced. An agency spokesperson said: “We only undertake returns to Sri Lanka when we are satisfied the individual has no international protection needs. The European court of human rights has ruled that not all Tamil asylum seekers require protection.” But the agency would not say what arrangements, if any, the British government had in place to monitor the treatment of those who were returned. The agency also declined to identify the airport from which the plane is due to depart on Wednesday afternoon. The Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers were both accused of committing war crimes towards the end of the civil war. A US diplomatic cable leaked to WikiLeaks showed that American diplomats believed the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, bore responsibility for many of the alleged crimes. The US ambassador in Colombo, Patricia Butenis, wrote that one of the reasons there was such little progress towards a genuine Sri Lankan inquiry was that Rajapaksa and his former army commander, Sarath Fonseka, were largely responsible, and that “there are no examples we know of a regime undertaking wholesale investigations of its own troops or senior officials for war crimes while that regime or government remained in power”. Sri Lanka Immigration and asylum Torture Human rights Ian Cobain guardian.co.uk
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