Deputy PM seeks to reassure critics of shake-up as Commons health committee urges rethink of proposals in health and social care bill The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, promised to address “legitimate” concerns over the government’s controversial NHS reforms as MPs called for significant changes to the plans. The cross-party Commons health committee urged a rethink, with its chair, Stephen Dorrell, saying it was not a case of merely recommending “minor tweaking” of the health and social care bill. The publication of the committee report comes as Clegg and the prime minister, David Cameron, prepare to launch a “listening exercise” this week in an attempt to reassure critics of the shake-up. The Liberal Democrat leader – who faced pressure from within his party last month over key elements of the bill – said the government would listen to “legitimate” concerns about the bill, currently going through parliament, and that there could be “substantial” changes. Clegg said: “The NHS is not the government’s property. We want people to feel comfortable with the changes, which will strengthen, and not weaken, the NHS.” In a sign of nervousness in Downing Street – which fears the public backlash is jeopardising Cameron’s work in persuading the public that the NHS is safe in Tory hands – the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, will accept some of the broad principles in the health select committee report, although he will resist many of the detailed recommendations. Lansley, who met David Cameron in Downing Street on Monday, took the rare step of making a statement to MPs about the progress of a bill which has still not completed all its stages in the Commons. He said he would amend his plans during a “natural break” in the passage of the bill, which sets out reforms that would hand 60% of the NHS’s £103bn budget to new GP-led consortiums. Government sources said he was carefully studying proposals by the committee, which calls for GPs to share commissioning powers and responsibility with nurses, consultants, public health experts and patients. Clegg said he believed it was an “uncontroversial idea” to hand GPs more responsibility. He told BBC Breakfast: “It is a rather good idea to have them in the driving seat, rather than unaccountable officials who are moving money around from one side of the desk to the other. “But, yes, with responsibility must come more accountability, which is precisely why we will be looking at these concerns, and will be looking to amend the legislation to reflect that.” He added that “a number of very significant amendments and improvements” had already been made to the bill. Addressing concerns about competition, he said: “There isn’t going to be a bargain basement rush to the bottom, because there isn’t going to be competition based on price.” In comments reflecting the concern of grassroots party members, who last month voted overwhelmingly for on a ban on “cherry picking” by private companies, Clegg added: “We want to be very, very clear – we’re not going to allow cherry-picking. “We’re certainly not going to allow vital parts of the NHS, like A&E, to be suddenly open to competition.” The committee, chaired by John Major’s last health secretary, Stephen Dorrell, recommended a much bigger role for nurses, specialists and social care chiefs in deciding how services should be designed, together with tighter systems of governance and accountability. All NHS commissioners, who would be GPs under the bill’s proposals, should have a board chaired by an independent person as well as a chief executive and finance director, they recommended. The boards should be forced to meet in public, and measures put in place to ensure no conflict of interest as a result of GPs commissioning services from private firms in which they have a stake. The name “GP consortia” to represent groups buying services should be scrapped, and renamed “NHS commissioning authorities”, the report said. This would reflect an expanded role for other health professionals in commissioning, including nurses and hospital doctors. As a result of the changes put forward by the committee, health and wellbeing boards in the bill could be scrapped, the report said. The committee also called for commissioners to have a legal obligation to consult patients through HealthWatch, an organisation designed to ensure local views are taken into account. “Some of the ideas suggested by the committee are in sync with the government’s thinking on how, for example, others might be involved in the GP consortia,” one Whitehall source said. But Lansley will not accept all Dorrell’s ideas, because he believes they would put too many groups in the new GP-led consortiums. “It is wrong to assume that the health select committee is telling the secretary of state what to do,” the source said. “This is an evolutionary process.” Dorrell admitted his reworking of the bill “is not minor tweaking”. He said: “We believe it is crucial to get the reform of NHS commissioning right if the service is to confront the massive financial challenge it now faces. “Our report contains a set of practical proposals to strengthen the health and social care bill and make it better able to meet the government’s objectives. “Our proposals are designed to ensure that NHS commissioning involves all stakeholders – GPs, certainly, but also nurses, hospital doctors, and representatives of social care and local communities. “We believe this broadening of the base for commissioning is vital if we are to achieve the changes that are necessary to allow the NHS to deliver properly co-ordinated healthcare.” NHS Health Health policy Nick Clegg Andrew Lansley GPs Doctors Hélène Mulholland Polly Curtis Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
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Director of public prosecutions contradicts Met acting deputy commissioner’s account of legal advice given to police The director of public prosecutions has challenged the accuracy of evidence given to parliament in the phone-hacking affair by John Yates, the acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police. In a detailed letter to the chairmen of two select committees, Keir Starmer QC contradicts Yates’s account of legal advice prosecutors gave to police when they first investigated the interception of voicemail messages by the News of the World in 2006. Yates has claimed repeatedly that police found only 10 or 12 victims. Evidence has now emerged that police knew of “a vast number”. He has told parliament on four occasions that he quoted the lower number because prosecutors told police they must prove not only that voicemail had been intercepted but also that it had occurred before the intended recipient had heard the message. In his written evidence Starmer listed a series of claims directly contradicting Yates’s account. He said: • Police had been advised that interception is an offence under the Computer Misuse Act, regardless of whether messages had been heard by their intended recipients. • An in-house lawyer at the Crown Prosecution Service had raised the possibility that under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act it might be necessary to show that the messages had not been heard but paperwork sent to police showed this view had been “very, very untested” and clearly “provisional”. • This early advice was then set aside when David Perry QC was appointed as prosecuting counsel – “He is clear that he did not at any stage give a definitive view that the narrow interpretation was the only possible interpretation”. • The charges that were brought against the NoW reporter, Clive Goodman, and the private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, included counts where there was no evidence whether messages had already been heard. Yates has told the House of Commons home affairs committee as well as the committee on culture, media and sport that a narrow interpretation of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act “permeated the entire investigation”. In contrast, Starmer said: “In my view the legal advice given by the CPS to the Metropolitan police on the interpretation of the relevant offences did not limit the scope and extent of the criminal investigation.” He added that he had shown a draft of his evidence to Yates, who had not identified any factual inaccuracies. Phone hacking News of the World Police Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News International guardian.co.uk
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Test your wildlife identification skills and see how many species you can identify from a close-up of their eyes
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Wanda, the great travel writer’s widow, is as formidable a presence in real life as she is in Newby’s books, as Sam Jordison discovers When the late, great travel writer Eric Newby was asked in a magazine article to name one thing he couldn’t travel without, he said simply “my wife”. Wanda Newby is such a commanding presence in his books that it’s easy to see why. She is tough, practical and – most importantly – absolutely hilarious. Without her, he wouldn’t have had half so much to write about. Indeed, when she stayed at home, his journeys didn’t come off. Wanda herself once said: “He cycled 700 miles across England with somebody else because I didn’t want to do it in the cold. But it didn’t work. Eric said he couldn’t write the piece without my dialogue.” In Newby’s books, Wanda is combative, constantly argumentative, but thoroughly endearing. It’s hard to convey just how marvellous she is in a few words, but you can get a flavour from the following curt note, which Newby quotes in Love and War in the Appennines , his autobiographical account of hiding out in the Italian mountains during the second world war. She sends it to Eric at a point of extreme personal stress into warn him that the Nazis are about to arrive and he must escape: “Get out! Tonight, 22.00, if not Germany tomorrow 06.00.” Naturally, when I was offered the chance to meet her I leapt at it. Wanda spoke to me in her home in Kennington one bright afternoon last month, in a room flowing over with trinkets, sculptures, and pictures gathered from the four corners of the earth, and dominated by a large glass case containing a beautiful scale model of the Moshulu , the four-masted steel barque in which Eric sailed to Australia, aged just 19. We sat and leafed through the big red book Eric had been given after appearing on This Is Your Life, back in 1978, and drank tea while Wanda reminisced over 60 years of marriage, 20 books and countless journeys. My original intention was to ask Wanda how it felt to be the star of so many books, but she didn’t much want to talk about that. In fact, I got the impression she thought it was rather a daft question. “It’s rather embarrassing,” she said. “I don’t like it. But I was there. So of course, he had to mention me.” I wasn’t about to argue with her – from reading the books, I knew I’d lose. But on the subject of arguments, she did give me the following insight into why Eric invariably let her have her way: “I kept the money. If we had a quarrel, or something, I always said I’d go home with my purse. He did listen to me quite a bit. In fact, he needed somebody to support him.” To illustrate the latter point she told me about the time Eric decided he had to go on a river trip: “He said ‘I’m going on the Mississippi’. And I said: ‘You must be mad to go on the Mississippi, it’s not an adventure. There are houses everywhere.’ Then he said: ‘What about the Volga?’ And I said: ‘Well what are you exploring there? It’s all built up, it’s in Europe. Why don’t you go on the Ganges.’ And he said: ‘That’s a marvellous idea.’ “And we went.” The result was the classic Slowly Down The Ganges . To hear Wanda tell it, you’d think taking a 1,200-mile boat trip through the heart of India was as straightforward as catching the tube from her home in Kennington to Waterloo. The reality is that the Ganges is even less conducive to comfort than the Northern Line. I asked her if this marked lack of luxury had ever troubled her. “Well, it was interesting. If something is interesting, it doesn’t matter how tough it is. I enjoyed it,” she said. “We had to sleep on the banks, and the first night I was petrified because hyenas started shrieking around our camp. But the boatman said: ‘Don’t you worry, they only eat dead things.’ And since I wasn’t dead I put up with it.” Wanda was similarly enlightening when talking about Eric’s ability to charm his way around the globe. Her husband, she said, “was a strong man”. He may have described himself as “a bloody idiot” who mainly provided entertainment by blundering in and out of trouble – but that wasn’t the whole story. Just as “a short walk” in the Hindu Kush was actually a gruelling many-hundred-mile trek, so Newby carefully understated his own ability. Even his prose – which flows as easily and naturally as a river to the sea – conceals great labour. Writing did come naturally to him, said Wanda, but only because he worked so hard at it. Even before setting out “he did a lot of preparation”, reading up on wherever he was going and planning meticulously. “He wasn’t just going for adventure. He always found what he wanted. He didn’t choose a place and just go.” He kept comprehensive notes and, on his return, would spend hours working every evening. So he may have been an idiot – but he was no fool. He was also, Wanda told me with satisfaction, “well fed.” Once again, I could see how important she must have been to the partnership. But she insisted it was she who was the lucky one: “I was very fortunate to meet someone as eccentric as Eric. I enjoyed everywhere we went because he made it so interesting.” By now, the afternoon sunlight had faded. We had more tea. “I never thought I’d end up in London,” said Wanda. She had come a long way. I knew, because I’d also read the one book she wrote, Peace and War: Growing Up in Fascist Italy. She insisted to me that it was “not very good”, but on that point at least, I would have to argue. As well as providing a funny and poignant retelling of the story in Love and War in the Apennines – and how she and Eric first met, in fascist Italy – it is a fine evocation of a lost place and time, the Slovenian countryside between the wars, a world away from that comfortable room in Kennington. It made me feel quite misty-eyed, but typically, Wanda had little time for such sentimentality. “Don’t live to be 89,” was her last word on her long eventful life. “People grow too old nowadays. I don’t recommend it.” Eric Newby Travel writing Sam Jordison guardian.co.uk
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Kenneth Minor to appeal against life sentence after victim Jeffrey Locker hired the homeless man for assisted suicide A man convicted of murdering a debt-ridden motivational speaker has been sentenced to at least 20 years in prison in a case that tested the bounds of assisted suicide. Speaking for the first time about the death of Jeffrey Locker in July 2009, Kenneth Minor said his own life had “ended” the day he accepted Locker’s offer to pay to be killed in an apparent robbery so that his family could collect millions of dollars in insurance money . “In the end, Locker is where he wanted to be,” said Minor, 38. “I’m no animal, and I ain’t got no malice in my heart. “In the end, a life is a life. And I ask your forgiveness,” he said – before yelling an expletive on hearing his 20-years-to-life sentence. He plans to appeal, citing a juror’s statement that she felt compelled to convict him on the judge’s instructions. The case was unusual for broaching the concept of assisted suicide in the context of strangers staging an apparent street crime. Locker approached Minor on a New York street to ask for help staging his death, both prosecutors and Minor had said. Minor did not testify at his trial but told his account to police when he was arrested. Locker, 52, co-authored a 1998 self-help book and gave presentations on handling workplace stress. But he was deep in financial trouble himself, partly because of an investment in a $300m (£185m) Ponzi scheme. Locker had planned his death, including researching funeral arrangements online, sending his wife an email explaining how to shield and distribute their assets “when I am gone” and buying about $14m in life insurance in his final months to add to the $4m he already had, investigators found. Minor was a homeless former computer technician with a record of drug arrests. He said he initially balked at Locker’s request but started to feel sorry for him after hearing about his money troubles. Prosecutors said Minor went beyond aiding his suicide by stabbing Locker seven times in his car in East Harlem, New York, miles from his home on Long Island. Minor was arrested a few days later after using Locker’s cash-machine card – his compensation from Locker, he claimed. “This was murder for money, not a mercy killing,” said Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance after Minor’s conviction last month. Minor said he only held a knife while Locker repeatedly lunged into it. “I’m not suggesting that what Minor did is correct or right,” his lawyer, Daniel Gotlin, told the court, but “had Locker not decided to come to Manhattan and find an underprivileged individual, a minority individual, to do his dirty work, we would not be here today.” Minor, who said he had offered to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, also said he believed race played a role in the case. But the state supreme court justice Carol Berkman said race “has nothing to do with what’s going on here”. “[Minor] was willing to participate in inflicting great pain on another human being for cash,” she said before sentencing him to a prison term midway between the minimum and maximum for his conviction. Berkman’s instructions to the jury about New York law surrounding assisted suicide are likely to focus Minor’s appeal. The state allows “causing or aiding” a suicide as a defence to certain murder charges; over Gotlin’s objections, Berkman told jurors that provision could not apply if Minor “actively” caused Locker’s death. That confused jurors about the defence, juror Olympia Moy said in a sworn statement that the defence team filed in court. “If the judge had not instructed us to consider whether Minor’s killing was ‘active’ or not, I would have voted not guilty to murder,” Moy’s statement said, adding that she contacted Gotlin to express her concerns after the verdict. Berkman believes the instructions were appropriate, and rejected a bid to overturn the verdict. “I’m sorry that a juror was shaken,” she said, but “day-after remorse by a juror is never a basis to question a verdict.” Locker’s family has been unable to collect most of the insurance money. His widow and family declined to comment through her father’s law office. Criminal cases surrounding assisted suicide have often concerned terminally ill people and the medical providers or relatives who help them end their lives. But a few other cases besides Minor’s have involved looser relationships and people who were not sick. New York United States guardian.co.uk
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Only one person survives after UN plane crashes in Kinshasa while landing in poor weather Only one person among 33 passengers and crew survived after a UN plane crashed while attempting to land in poor weather in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Monday. The accident, in Kinshasa, is one of the worst to involve a UN aircraft. Most of the passengers were UN staff and peacekeepers, although five NGO workers were also on board. Alain Le Roy, the head of UN peacekeeping operations, said there had been no immediate information about the sole survivor, who is in hospital in the Congolese capital. The plane, which was travelling from the eastern city of Goma, had missed the runway in N’djili airport in Kinshasa, possibly because of heavy winds, Le Roy said. The Bombardier CRJ-100 jet broke up on impact and caught fire. Television footage showed the aircraft was almost destroyed. A formal investigation into the crash is under way. While the nationalities of the victims have not been confirmed, the South African government said three of its citizens had died in the accident. The International Rescue Committee , an American aid agency, said its senior reproductive health adviser in Congo, Dr Boubacar Toure, a Guinean, was also among the dead. The plane was operated and staffed by Airzena Georgian Airways . The company, which has been flying for the UN in Congo for three years, said its four crew members, all Georgians, had died, and expressed shock at the accident. The UN security council has sent its “deepest condolences” to the families of the victims. With 19,000 troops, the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo is the world’s largest, and is reliant on air transport as the road network is inadequate. Congo has one of the world’s worst aviation safety records, mainly because of the fleet of old and often poorly maintained aircraft that serve the civilian population. Democratic Republic of the Congo Plane crashes Air transport United Nations guardian.co.uk
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PC Simon Harwood, the police officer who pushed Ian Tomlinson to the ground at the G20 protests two years ago, gives his second day of evidence at the newspaper seller’s inquest 10.13am: Harwood is being questioned by Alison Hewitt, counsel for the inquest. After the protester escaped (see below), Harwood said he was “seeking refuge” near Royal Exchange Buildings. He said there was “hostility” from protesters, so he put his back to the building and faced the crowd to create what he said was a “fighting arc”. This, he said, is a training term used to describe the tactic for keeping the public at arms length. Harwood said after the protester he tried to arrest had escaped, he still had his coat, which he was “swaying” to keep protesters away. 10.06am: Jury is back in the room. PC Simon Harwood has taken his seat on the witness stand. We’re off. 10.03am: Welcome to the Ian Tomlinson inquest live blog. I’m writing this from a seat in the courtroom, where everyone is expecting the next few hours to be the most dramatic of the 5-6 week hearing. Yesterday, PC Simon Harwood, the police officer who was captured in footage released by the Guardian striking Tomlinson with a baton and pushing him to the ground, began giving testimony. His opening remarks – in which he said he was here to “help” the family – caused some offence. But so far, the evidence has been limited to background information relating to incidents in the runup to his encounter with the 47-year-old newspaper seller near the Bank of England on April 1 2009. That will change today when we expect him to provide his justification for the alleged attack on Tomlinson. Proceedings were adjourned as Harwood gave evidence about his attempted arrest of a protester spraying graffiti on a van. This occurred around 20ft from Royal Exchange Buildings – the passage where he came across Tomlinson – and just a matter of minutes before. So we’re getting closer. The protester struggled free after his head struck a police van door, and Harwood was left isolated in what he described as a hostile crowd. He said: At the time, because he was becoming more aggressive, more hostile, I was starting to believe that this was getting out of control. I was aware there was a very hostile crowd and I was actually in fear for my life then from what was coming towards me. My colleague Sam Jones is here too today. You can follow our updates on Twitter – @paul__lewis and @swajones. Please do ask questions and point out where these updates require clarification too. Ian Tomlinson Protest G20 Police London Paul Lewis Sam Jones guardian.co.uk
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Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara team up with UN and French helicopters to loosen Laurent Gbagbo’s grip on power Fighters loyal to Alassane Ouattara have surrounded the presidential palace in Ivory Coast with the help of UN and French helicopters, as incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo’s grip on power appeared increasingly tenuous. Ouattara’s forces have described the assault on the main city of Abidjan as the final offensive to oust Gbagbo, whose refusal to acknowledge his rival as the legitimate winner of last year’s presidential election, prompted a violent conflict. Sustained machinegun and heavy weapons fire rang out from the direction of the palace before dawn, in the heaviest fighting since Ouattara’s forces entered the city five days ago. Troops surrounding Gbagbo’s home are now waiting for him to step down, an advisor to Ouattara told Associated Press. The assault came after UN helicopters carried out a string of attacks on Gbagbo’s forces on Monday, destroying their weapons at four places where they had been shelling civilians, a UN spokesman said. The helicopters fired four missiles at a Gbagbo military camp in Abidjan, witnesses told Reuters. “We saw two UN MI-24 helicopters fire missiles on the Akouedo military camp. There was a massive explosion and we can still see the smoke,” one said. The assault on Akouedo – which is host to three battallions of the Ivorian army – was captured in a video posted on YouTube . Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the UN mission in Ivory Coast, said in an email: “We launched an operation to neutralise heavy weapons that Gbagbo’s special forces have been using against the civilian population for the last three months. We destroyed them in four locations.” President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said that French troops had been authorised to participate in the UN attack after a request for help from the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. The UN security council is meeting to discuss the situation. Toussaint Alain, a Paris-based spokesman for Gbagbo, called the strikes “illegal, illegitimate and unacceptable” and said they will have resulted in many casualties among families living at the military barracks. “France has gone to war against Ivory Coast,” he added. Separately, the French foreign ministry said two French nationals and several other people had been abducted in Abidjan. France’s Europe 1 radio reported five people had been abducted in all from a hotel in the city’s business district. Jean Fouquiere, a spokesman for the French Embassy in Ivory Coast, said: “I confirm that five people have been kidnapped at Novotel Hotel, including two French nationals and a man from Benin.” Ivory Coast was a French colony until independence in 1960. France still has about 12,000 citizens, and 1,650 troops in the country. The UN evacuated 170 civilian staff from Abidjan at the weekend. “We are fast approaching a tipping point,” Choi Young-jin, the UN’s top diplomat in Ivory Coast, told the BBC. “We can no longer condone their [Mr Gbagbo's forces'] reckless and mindless attacks on civilians and the UN blue helmets [troops] with heavy weapons.” Choi, whose own office has been hit by sniper fire, added: “We are now in a way under siege, so we cannot go out freely, [they're] targeting us with snipers, it’s a deliberate shoot at the UN. For the last few days we’ve had 11 [peacekeepers] wounded by their gunshots … They are targeting the HQ, they cut off the water … and we are now in the bunker.” In all, 20 peacekeepers have been injured since the crisis triggered by last November’s disputed election. Choi said the UN’s 9,000 troops did not have a mandate to dislodge Gbagbo, but could respond to heavy weapons attacks against the UN or civilians. Pro-Oauttara troops entered Abidjan yesterday in a convoy of several dozen vehicles – the first elements of a large force massed on the northern outskirts for what they called a “final assault”. Heavy machine-gun fire and a few explosions could be heard minutes after they entered the city limits. The commanding officer told Reuters he had 4,000 men with him, plus 5,000 already in the city. Asked how long he would need to take Abidjan, Issiaka “Wattao” Ouattara said: “We know when it starts, but it could take 48 hours to properly clean [the city].” . Despite mass defections, Gbagbo has surprised many observers by fighting back, issuing a call to arms to his supporters, who went to his residence on Sunday to form a human shield. In Britain, foreign secretary Gbagbo’s spokesman, Abdon George Bayeto, told the BBC that there is an international plot against the incumbent. “When it comes to a fight, we are going to put up a fight,” he said. “The president is not going to step down.” Away from the fighting, UN investigators found a mass grave containing nearly 200 bodies, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said on Monday. The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday at least 800 people were killed in intercommunal violence in Duekoue last week . Ivory Coast France United Nations Selay Kouassi Ed Pilkington David Smith guardian.co.uk
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International concern grows over fate of missing Chinese artist amid wider crackdown on dissidents and activists Britain, the US and the EU have joined the growing international outcry over the detention of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and the wider crackdown on dissidents and activists. Officials detained the 53-year-old at Beijing airport on Sunday morning. No one has been able to contact him since. “I call on the Chinese government to urgently clarify Ai’s situation and wellbeing, and hope he will be released immediately,” William Hague said. The foreign secretary added: “The development of independent civil society and application of human rights under the rule of law are essential prerequisites for China’s long-term prosperity and stability.” US state department spokesman Mark Toner called for the immediate release of the artist, adding: “We obviously continue to be deeply concerned by the trend of forced disappearances, extralegal detentions, arrests and convictions of human rights activists for exercising their internationally recognised human right for freedom of expression.” The EU delegation to China said it was concerned by the increasing use of arbitrary detention against human rights defenders, lawyers and activists in China. Citing Ai’s case, it added: “We call on the Chinese authorities to refrain from using arbitrary detention under any circumstances.” France and Germany earlier appealed for the artist’s release. “Ai Weiwei being taken away is not surprising to us; we just didn’t think it would happen now. I don’t think he had expected that either … Let’s hope for the best,” said Pu Zhiqiang, a human rights lawyer. Pu said he had agreed to represent the artist if anything happened to him, but added that he had not been able to discuss the issue with Ai’s family yet. “The police had not given any kind of notice to the family – we can’t start the procedures. Even if they detain some kind of street thug, they have to give a notice within certain time, but for Ai Weiwei there is no information,” he added. Ai has repeatedly clashed with authorities over his outspoken criticism. Friends are particularly alarmed by the length of his detention and the scope and co-ordination of the police operation. Officers have removed dozens of items, including documents and computers, from the artist’s studio. His wife, Lu Qing, told Reuters: “This time it’s extremely serious. They searched his studio and took disks and hard drives and all kinds of stuff, but the police haven’t told us where he is or what they’re after. There’s no information about him.” Liu Xiaoyuan, a human rights lawyer, told Reuters: “I hope he doesn’t have to face trial or be jailed,” he said. “But sometimes the things you don’t wish to happen could happen.” Ai, who created the Sunflower Seeds installation at Tate Modern in London, was due to visit the capital next month for two major exhibitions. A spokesman for the gallery said: “We are dismayed by developments that again threaten Weiwei’s right to speak freely as an artist and hope that he will be released immediately.” The Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network said four artists from Beijing were detained on 24 March after a performance art event in the Chinese capital where some pieces touched on the crackdown and the “jasmine revolution”. An anonymous appeal for protests akin to the Middle East uprisings, which was posted on an overseas website, appears to have sparked the campaign against critics. Artists Huang Xiang, Zhui Hun and Cheng Li were criminally detained for “causing a disturbance” by officers from Songzhuang police station and Guo Gai was also taken away, probably because he had taken pictures during the exhibition, CHRD said. No one could be reached for comment at the Taihu detention centre, where the four are reportedly held. An employee at Songzhuang police station said: “I don’t know about the situation,” then added: “Actually, it is not convenient to talk about it.” CHRD, which has been keeping a tally of the number of detentions, says in total about a dozen people have disappeared and 26 criminally detained in the latest sweep, with five released on bail. Another three have been formally arrested and one has been sent to re-education through labour. Asked about concerns for the whereabouts and safety of those reported missing, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, told a regular press briefing last week: “China’s judicial authorities work independently. China, as a country under the rule of law, protects its citizens’ basic rights and freedoms – including freedom of expression – but citizens while exercising their rights have an obligation to abide by the law and should not bring harm to the public interest.” Ai Weiwei China Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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