The rescue of 33 miners from Chile’s San José mine after 69 days trapped underground was a triumph shared with the whole world. But the transition back to normality is proving difficult for both the men and their families ‘They are not heroes. We are not heroes. We are all victims,” murmurs Lilly Ramírez, the uncompromising partner of Mario Gómez. At 63, he was the oldest of “the 33″ Chilean miners who were trapped half a mile under the Chilean desert on 5 August 2010, and whose rescue became a global event for a TV audience of an estimated 1 billion people. Ever since they emerged 69 days later on the night of 12/13
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With a fourth child, the couple have joined the ranks of the irresponsible, population experts say David and Victoria Beckham may have been overjoyed to welcome their new daughter, Harper Seven, last week but, according to a growing group of campaigners, the birth of their fourth child make the couple bad role models and environmentally irresponsible. As the world’s population is due to hit seven billion at some point in the next few days, there is an increasing call for the UK to open a public debate about how many children people have. Now the Green MP, Caroline Lucas, has joined other leading environmentalists in calling for the smashing of what TV zoologist Sir David Attenborough has called the “absurd taboo” in discussing family size in the UK. Lucas said: “We need to have a far greater public debate about population, whether it focuses on improving family planning or reducing global inequality – and looking again at how we address the strain on our natural resources. The absence of an open and honest discussion about this issue means most people don’t give much thought to the scale of global population growth in recent years. In 1930, just one or two generations ago, the world’s population stood at around two billion. Today it is around seven billion, and by 2050 it is projected to rise by a third to 9 billion. “We live as if we have three planets instead of just one. It is interesting that public figures, environmental groups and NGOs in general have tended to steer away from population to the extent that it’s become a taboo issue. The horrific consequences of China’s one-child policy and of other draconian efforts to regulate procreation have, for many, rendered discussion of the subject completely unpalatable. Yet as long as an issue remains a taboo subject where no one talks about it, then there’s very little chance of finding the solutions we need.” It is a view that is being pushed by the UK-based Optimum Population Trust, whose chief executive, Simon Ross, is calling for the government to tackle the UK’s high rates of accidental pregnancy and to give child benefits and tax credits only for the first two children. “That would send a clear signal that the government will support sustainable families, but after that you are on your own,” he said. “There is a big issue there, family planning is cheap, yet many people don’t use it properly and accidental pregnancy rates are very high. We need to change the incentives to make the environmental case that one or two children are fine but three or four are just being selfish. “The Beckhams, and others like London mayor Boris Johnson, are very bad role models with their large families. There’s no point in people trying to reduce their carbon emissions and then increasing them 100% by having another child,” he said. “England is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and the fastest-growing in population terms in Europe. In 15 years we’ll have an extra 10 million people here.” Attenborough has attacked the last two UN climate summits in Cancún and Copenhagen for ducking the population issue. Giving the President’s Lecture at the Royal Society of Arts in March, he made a passionate speech about how the world’s baby-making was damaging the planet and called for every country to have a population policy. “The sooner we stabilise our numbers the sooner we stop running up the down escalator,” he said. “Fifty years ago there were about 3 billion people on Earth. Now there are almost 7 billion – almost double – and every one of them needing space. There cannot be more people on this Earth than can be fed.” The population debate has often been overshadowed by what is seen as the disastrous and often inhumane experiment by China, with its notorious one-child policy, and with sensitivity about being seen to criticise birthrates in underdeveloped countries. But campaigners point to the fact that it is the populations of the developed world who use the vast majority of the world’s resources. Lucas said the Green party was not afraid to raise the subject because it was “fundamental” to wellbeing. “The lesson to be learned from China is surely that efforts to curb population growth in a way that restricts individual liberty are dangerous and come at huge human cost,” she said. “Policies that focus on increasing access to birth control for all who want it, reducing poverty and inequality, improving food security and tackling environmental degradation are where we should be focusing our attention. “At its heart, this is a debate about poverty and inequality, as well as about sustainability – and we believe that strong policies to reduce the yawning gulf between rich and poor should underpin every effort to address it. “I don’t believe that government incentives or laws to that effect are what we need. As a richer country, we face different challenges when it comes to population than those in the developing world, where high birth rates are linked to dire poverty and inequality. It’s an equally important issue for both richer and poorer nations – this is a global debate which affects us all.” Harper Seven Beckham David Beckham Victoria Beckham Population David Attenborough Caroline Lucas Tracy McVeigh guardian.co.uk
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Parent of man accused of teenager’s murder in Greece offers sympathy to victim’s family The mother of the young Greek accused of murdering a British holidaymaker on the Ionian island of Zante (Zakynthos) said she was driven by only one desire – to comfort the murdered teenager’s mother. Breaking her silence for the first time since 19-year-old Robert Sebbage was fatally stabbed in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Louise Morfis said her entire family had been thrown into mourning by the “terrible” crime. “My heart goes out to another mother, please tell her I want to hold her,” said the Australian-born English teacher. “No one can judge pain and no one feels it like the mother of a child,” she told the Observer after placing a candle beside the spot in the party resort of Laganas where Sebbage, a Reading FC fan, was fatally stabbed. “We are both going through the same thing. We are both victims. She has lost her son and I have lost mine. For the rest of his life he will suffer for what he has done,” Morfis sighed, struggling to hold back tears. A former England football mascot who walked into Wembley stadium with David Beckham in 2007, Sebbage, from Tadley, Hampshire, died almost instantly after being knifed by 21-year-old taxi driver Stelios Morfis. Four of Sebbage’s friends were also stabbed. Laganas has been shocked by the killing. Late last Friday young holidaymakers could be seen paying their respects at the murder scene in the resort’s main, neon-lit strip. A local nightclub placed a floral tribute at the spot, and a white chrysanthemum wreath hanging from a lamp post read: “With our deepest sympathy, Danny and Louise Morfis.” “He was bleeding badly and everybody rushed and took off their T-shirts to try and stop the blood,” said an Ethiopian tattoo artist who witnessed the attack. “He stumbled up to my table and then he just fell. Everyone was in shock. The other boys, who were also injured, were crying ‘help, help’.” The young Britons were enjoying the last night of their first holiday abroad when the row erupted. According to police accounts of the incident, they began taunting Morfis with laser pens, before the 6ft 3in bodybuilder lashed out at them with a seven-inch penknife his taxi-driver father said he kept in the car for peeling fruit. “I cannot stop thinking about him [Sebbage],” said Louise Morfis, dressed in black linen. “My family is in mourning. For three nights I haven’t slept. I can’t sleep, Stevie [Stelios], my son, can’t sleep. He keeps saying: ‘Sorry, sorry, I never meant it’.” Morfis is no newcomer to trouble – earlier this month he was arrested after another altercation on the Ionian isle. But initial reports that he had tried to escape from Zante in a speedboat were wrong. Police say he fled on foot into the fields outside Laganas, from where he was quickly coaxed by his father into giving himself up. The former presidential guard has been charged with murder. Under Greek law he could spend up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. Jason Mason, one of the other young Britons who were attacked, suffered a punctured lung in the brawl and remains in serious condition in hospital. “I totally understand it [the reaction of the British press] because, where there is a loss of life and people don’t see the whole picture, there is always anger,” said Morfis’s mother. “It should never have happened. They’re children and didn’t know what they were doing, of that I am certain. If they knew what they were doing, his mother wouldn’t be here [collecting her son's body] and nor would I. “I don’t want my countrypeople to think it was Greek against English. We speak English at home. My twin sister is married to an Englishman. “My son’s life will never be the same. My family’s life will never be the same again,” she lamented, as she turned away, a figure of grief in a tragedy that tourist-dependent Greece is not likely to forget easily. Greece Europe Crime Helena Smith guardian.co.uk
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The reality show, which ends its current run tonight, has gained record viewing figures Finding the formula for a successful television franchise might sound just as tricky as finding a winning business proposition, but Lord Sugar, the grizzly eminence at the heart of hit “reality” show The Apprentice , has no need to worry. The current series of his long-running BBC1 programme has beaten all previous viewing figures and Sunday’s final, at 9pm, looks likely to win an audience of about 9
Continue reading …University tuition fee hike will hit 100,000 of this year’s unlucky students
July 16, 2011 No Comment
Number expected to miss out on a university place this summer pushed up by coalition’s reneging on Labour intake pledge More than 100,000 students will face a double disappointment when they fail to find a place at university this summer and are hit with the prospect of trebled tuition fees when they try again in 12 months’ time. Official figures reveal the size of the group who will fail to attain a university place in the last year before fees shoot up. It is made up of 75,000-85,000 who would have gone on to standard university courses and a further 10,000 to 20,000 nursing, midwifery and teacher training applicants. It is about 10,000 people larger than it would have been because of the coalition’s decision to renege on the Labour government’s pledge to increase the total intake in 2011 as they did in 2010. Usman Ali, the National Union of Students’ vice-president for higher education, said the stakes were high for students. “For several years now we have seen the numbers of qualified and ambitious students applying to university outstripping the number of places available, forcing those young people to fight for jobs in an ever-shrinking youth job market,” said Ali. “The most determined choose to reapply the following year, but those who miss out this year will find themselves with fees trebled and government funding slashed simply because the government is not willing to expand investment in skills and education for young people when it is most needed. “Those students will find themselves stuck between the rock of high youth unemployment, and the hard place of spiralling debt. “Those who do enter university in 2012 will accrue more debt at university than any generation before, and once the implications of the white paper become clear, they could even find that their fees are higher than those who follow them.” According to the research from the House of Commons library, those most likely to miss out are mature, disabled or black students, or those with lower educational attainment. Meanwhile, the Royal Society of Chemistry has raised concerns over the debts prospective scientists face. Using the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills’ own figures, it claims a senior academic on a salary of £75,000 would pay back three times the £45,000 loan they would be expected to take in order to complete their studies. However, Professor David Phillips, president of the society, said that the publishing by universities of employment prospects by degree would highlight how well the sciences fare against other subjects. He said: “These consequences affect all students, whatever subject they study. However, students would do well to consider what the employment prospects are for any course they undertake. “For some subjects these are bleak, but for the ‘hard’ sciences, and particularly chemistry, employment prospects are very good, so we urge schools to encourage science students into subjects like chemistry [and engineering and physics] where employment is not only highly likely, but fills a national need also.” A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: “Going to university has always been a competitive process and not all who apply are accepted. Despite this, we do understand how frustrating it is for young people who wish to go to university and are unable to find a place. “We are opening up other routes into a successful career. Our reforms will make part-time university study more accessible.” Higher education Students Tuition fees Daniel Boffey guardian.co.uk
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With her daughter stillborn and her husband suffering from depression, Jessica Nicholl and her MP Vince Cable are fighting her deportation back to the US A couple grieving for their stillborn daughter face being split up, after immigration authorities ruled that there was insufficient justification for them to be allowed to stay together in Britain. Despite the intervention of the couple’s local MP, the business secretary, Vince Cable, a judge last week refused Californian Jessica Nicholl’s appeal to stay with her husband, John, who is suffering from depression. She has been told to return to the US by Thursday, after which she will have to go through the process of applying for a spousal visa before the couple can be reunited. John, who had a string of family bereavements – including the deaths of James, his baby son from a previous relationship, and that of his father – before he met Jessica, has been in an especially fragile state since the death at birth of the couple’s daughter, Meadow. “I am really concerned about his wellbeing, we have both been relying very much on each other to get through this and I cannot bear to think what will happen if I have to leave him on his own,” said Jessica, 23. The pair met online five years ago and married in August 2009. They set up home in Twickenham, south-west London, to be close to John’s children from his previous relationship. “I came over on a visitor visa and didn’t think anything of it,” said Jessica. “We hadn’t even realised there would be an issue until after we got married and I had fallen pregnant, which is when we started to look into immigration and visas in depth and realised just how complex and difficult it really is.” Cable has written to Damian Green, the immigration minister, calling it a “deeply tragic case”. Describing Jessica’s predicament, the letter states: “Her attempt to regularise her status as a spouse has been unsuccessful. Clearly things have not been done as they would have been in an ideal situation. Nonetheless, we are where we are and this is a couple who are devoted to one another and dependent on each other’s support following the loss of their baby and the process of mourning and bereavement.” The couple are appalled by the legal nightmare in which they have found themselves. “It’s still a shock to us to be presented with the situation where a husband and wife aren’t allowed to live together,” said Jessica, “or even stay and support each other through such stressful and traumatic experiences as losing a child. “We need time to get over this, together. They are most likely going to let me back in, so why do I have to leave him at all?” She was also “deeply hurt” when Meadow’s death was described as a miscarriage when her appeal to stay was being considered. “I found it very offensive. That was our daughter and the judge dismissed our grief in a sentence.” West London Sands , a self-help bereavement charity for those who have suffered a neonatal or stillbirth, said it was common for such losses not to be considered on the same level as the loss of an older child. Colette Murphy, from the charity, said: “Jess had a really bad time when Meadow was born, a particularly traumatic birth. Unfortunately, time after time we see the loss of a baby undervalued.” There is no available parental home for Jessica to go back and live in while her spousal visa application is processed. “Our family in the UK is guaranteeing to support me if necessary,” said Jessica. “I am willing and eager to work, pay taxes and contribute to the welfare of my new home, as well as giving up any rights to any social benefits. I want to work in the care sector. It seems unfair to punish John for his condition, especially because of the lack of control he had over the circumstances that triggered his condition.” The couple’s lawyer, Duncan Grant, said: “What right-minded person would say they have to be split up now, when they clearly need to be supporting each other? They are quite clearly in love and reliant on each other.” Immigration and asylum Mental health Tracy McVeigh guardian.co.uk
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The Ministry of Justice plans to stop refunding the defence costs of people who are acquitted Innocent people will be forced to pay thousands of pounds for their own defence lawyers after a controversial coalition U-turn on legal aid. The move, which lawyers’ organisations claim puts a price on justice, comes at a time of mounting concern over cutbacks proposed by the Ministry of Justice. Clause 52 in the legal aid and sentencing bill removes the right of defendants to have the “reasonable” costs of hiring their own lawyer reimbursed if they are found innocent. The plan was first drawn up by the previous Labour government, but was scrapped in the face of Tory opposition. The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, the solicitor general, Edward Garnier, and justice ministers Jonathan Djanogly and Crispin Blunt all opposed the plan, and signed an early day motion against it in October 2009. But their decision now to back a similar proposal has alarmed justice groups. which have branded it a U-turn. “We are deeply disappointed that this government is trying to bring this back,” said Robert Khan, head of law reform at the Law Society. “It is wrong in principle that the acquitted person should then have to pay the costs of their defence for the temerity of proving their own innocence.” Ministers expect to save £40m under the proposals. More than one million defendants who appeared before magistrates courts in 2008 did not receive legal aid, meaning the estimated tens of thousands subsequently found innocent would have lost out financially. The government claims the move will put an end to the taxpayer writing out large cheques people such as Nick Freeman, the lawyer known as “Mr Loophole”, who regularly gets clients off speeding offences. Millionaire celebrities who are found not guilty would also no longer receive reimbursements. England midfielder Steven Gerrard received £311,000 in legal aid after he was acquitted of affray, while singer Amy Winehouse had £68,000 returned after being acquitted of hitting a fan. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We need to strike a fair balance between refunding costs to people who are found not guilty and protecting the taxpayer from ending up paying a bill for costs which are either overly expensive or not necessary.” But the Law Society claims the new measure will affect far more people than motorists and millionaires. Currently, section 16 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 gives courts the power to award costs that are “reasonably sufficient to compensate the defendant for any expenses which he has properly incurred in the proceedings”. The last government wanted to introduce a scheme that limited these costs to legal aid rates, which would mean those who hired their own lawyers would be able to reclaim only around a quarter of their estimated costs. Opposing the plan in a speech to parliament last year, the Tory MP Henry Bellingham, a barrister, argued that it was “fundamentally unfair and wrong” because it breached “a key principle of 20th-century criminal justice – that if a member of the public who is charged with a criminal offence seeks private representation in court and is subsequently acquitted, his or her reasonable costs will be met from central funds”. But clause 52 will now provide the lord chancellor with a power to cap the amounts courts in England and Wales can award at legal aid rates. Sound Off for Justice, which opposes the move, claims that because legal aid rates are “very low” many defendants will experience a significant shortfall. In a typical medium-sized case in the crown court, for example, the estimated loss for someone found innocent who has hired their own lawyer will be up to £20,000. In more complicated cases, it will be far greater. Clause 52 threatens to be a divisive issue for the government, putting it at odds with the judiciary and many MPs. The Law Society was successful in seeking a judicial review of the previous government’s plans. Explaining its decision, the high court warned the plan meant “that a defendant falsely accused by the state will have to pay from his own pocket to establish his innocence”. Following the ruling, the ministry decided that it would not appeal against the judgment, but the coalition’s decision to reintroduce the measure is likely to trigger fierce debate in parliament. The move is part of wide-ranging initiatives to curb the Ministry of Justice’s budget. Lawyers have previously raised concerns that under clause 12 of the bill the government could grant itself powers that would see the abolition of the universal right to a solicitor on arrest. Those arrested would be subject to means testing, a development that has alarmed legal campaigners who warn it removes a cornerstone of justice. The government has also signalled that it plans to expand the use of legal advice telephone lines to replace solicitors who dispense advice face to face. The government claims that CDS Direct, the helpline that provides advice to detainees at police stations, offers “a proven high-quality cost-effective service”. But the use of third party companies has raised concerns among some lawyers who question whether they offer value for money. Legal aid UK criminal justice Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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Damning report by defence committee singles out failures in manpower, intelligence and equipment that led to loss of lives The five-year British military campaign in southern Afghanistan has been woefully under-resourced and hampered by inadequate equipment, according to a damning report by MPs. The Commons defence select committee, which has been analysing UK operations in Helmand province since 2006, says that it was “unacceptable” British forces were handicapped by insufficient numbers, poor equipment and low-quality intelligence when the deployment began. For the first three years of the operation – during which 132 British personnel died and more than 2,000 were hospitalised in Helmand – victory was more or less unattainable given the levels of manpower, military vehicles available and knowledge of the enemy. The initial deployment of 3,500 solders into Helmand, of whom around 1,000 were infantry, was “not fully thought through”, the report says. James Arbuthnot, a former Conservative defence minister and chairman of the committee, said: “The force levels deployed throughout 2006, 2007 and 2008 were never going to achieve what was being demanded.” The report questions how the Ministry of Defence failed to anticipate that the presence of foreign troops in Helmand “might stir up a hornets’ nest”. The then defence secretary, John Reid, was famously reported as saying that he would have been happy if British forces had left Helmand “without a shot being fired”. By the end of 2008, however, British forces were expending almost four million bullets a year against an increasingly strident insurgency. The report also raises concerns that UK troops were in effect sent to tackle an enemy of which virtually nothing was known because available intelligence “was contradictory”. By the summer of 2006, military tactics dictated that individual platoons of about 30 soldiers were cornered in isolated towns, provoking an aggressive response from the surrounding Taliban. During August and September of that year, 27 soldiers were killed as the enemy launched repeated attacks against remote outposts. The committee’s first report on Afghanistan for more than a year also criticises the military’s failure to make clear the need for more resources. Representations to government are described as “inadequate at best”. As the conflict progressed, the MoD was criticised for failing to keep up with the evolving tactics of the Taliban, who switched from conventional warfare to guerrilla tactics involving suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices. In particular, a failure to provide bomb-proof vehicles and counter-IED support was a serious flaw that almost certainly cost British lives. The flimsy armoured vehicles first sent to Helmand – the Snatch Land Rover and armoured personnel carriers dating from the 1960s – offered minimal protection. “It took some time to get a suitably capable vehicle fleet into theatre. The MoD should prioritise the protection of personnel when considering the funding of such needs that emerge in the future,” the report says. Even now, it adds, British forces still lack sufficient helicopter numbers. A dispute in Whitehall over supplying 12 more Chinook helicopters to Helmand has yet to be settled. Looking ahead to Britain’s withdrawal from the province, MPs warn that the government’s room for manoeuvre is limited. Earlier this month David Cameron confirmed a “modest reduction” in British troops next year, probably by around 500. A further 400 are due to return home this year, leaving a core of 9,500 service personnel. Arbuthnot said: “The government’s clear determination to withdraw combat forces should not undermine the military strategy by causing the Afghan population to fear that the international coalition might abandon them or by allowing the Taliban and others to think that all they have to do is bide their time.” Afghanistan Defence policy James Arbuthnot Mark Townsend guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Julia Neuberger: ‘A nudge in the right direction won’t run the big society’
July 16, 2011 No Comment
House of Lords inquiry into US ‘nudge’ theory of human behaviour deals blow to coalition hopes of replacing costly legislation with social encouragement Ever since her appointment a year ago to head the House of Lords inquiry into behavioural change, Baroness (Julia) Neuberger has noticed that her grocery shopping habits have altered. “I’ve been looking at the labels very closely,” she says. “Takes much longer. The usual thing of throwing it all into the trolley – no!” The labels that Neuberger has been examining with such intent are designed to provide customers with colour-coded guidance on the amounts of salt, sugar and fat within each product. It is hoped that by using the “traffic light” system to highlight the more harmful ingredients, in say, a chocolate Hobnob, members of the public will be persuaded to eat more healthily. It is an example of “nudge”, the belief, promulgated by two American professors in a 2008 book, that human beings can be encouraged to make life-improving choices through incentives and social cues rather than through regulation and government legislation. The theory – outlined by Richard Thaler, professor of economics and behavioural science at Chicago Graduate School of Business, and by Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein – has been eagerly adopted by David Cameron , who set up a behavioural insight team last October. The unit was charged with introducing nudge to the “big society” or, as the coalition agreement puts it, “finding intelligent ways to encourage people to make better choices for themselves”. It was hoped issues such as the obesity crisis could be tackled by nudges – clearer food labelling, placing fruit not chocolate near supermarket checkouts – rather than by heavy-handed (and expensive) state intervention. The problem, as Neuberger saw it, was that there was “precious little” evidence to show that nudge worked beyond a purely individual basis. So the Lords set up a subgroup of its respected science and technology committee to examine the issues. After 12 months of research, 148 written submissions and evidence from 70 witnesses, the report will be published on Tuesday. It will make uncomfortable reading for Cameron because, according to Neuberger, nudging people is not normally enough. “Basically you need more than just nudge,” she says, when we meet in the Lords. “Behavioural change interventions appear to work best when they’re part of a package of regulation and fiscal measures,” she adds, putting down her papers and a large canvas bag from Daunt Books in Hampstead. She notices me looking at the bag. “I use it for everything! I don’t like briefcases.” The difficulty with nudge theory, she says, is that “all politicians love quick fixes. I mean, they look at very short time frames. I think one of the problems with all of this is if you really want to change people’s behaviour it takes a very long time … you have to look at a 20- to 25-year span before you get a full change of behaviour.” As an example, Neuberger points to the efforts to persuade people to wear seat belts in the 1970s, which incorporated an advertising campaign and legislation. “So it was a whole series of measures that did eventually change the climate.” Later, she adds: “I think politicians would be well advised to use these sorts of behavioural interventions as part of an armoury.” “Politicians all have a split personality,” she adds. “On one level, they engage their brains and they know perfectly well that things do take quite a long time to happen. On the other, they’ve got a very short time frame: they want to get re-elected, they need to make a mark. They have been, I think, very persuaded by the work of Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. I think they found that very appealing because, broadly, they prefer the idea of using behavioural change interventions to legislating or using fiscal measures.” Presumably, part of the appeal is also that, in a time of austerity, nudging costs much less than legislating? Neuberger nods. “There needs to be a huge amount of work, which I think the government will eventually have to pay for.” Did she enjoy Nudge when she read it? “It’s quite engaging,” she replies, not entirely enthusiastically. “It’s quite compelling as a book but, like all of those sorts of book – like The Tipping Point , like Bowling Alone , those books that have made quite an impact on politicians – I would say, you want to stand back for a few minutes and say: ‘But, but, but’.” From September, Neuberger will become a full-time rabbi at the West London Synagogue and going on to the crossbenches. “Because I’ve got members of the congregation of all religious faiths and none, I don’t want people to think I’m preaching Lib Dem politics from the pulpit.” She has clearly enjoyed heading the select committee – “it’s been a fantastically good experience” – but there is one thing she won’t miss. “There was a huge amount of written evidence,” she says, holding her hands at least 10 inches apart. “I mean, it’s like that – absolutely vast. It’s been with me backwards and forwards to Leamington Spa [where she lives with her husband, Anthony], but it always has to go in the car because it’s just too much to lug about.” She pauses, then adds with an impish grin: “Even in my Daunts bag.” Social trends Psychology Anthropology Elizabeth Day guardian.co.uk
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Khartoum is keeping UN peacekeepers in the dark as it wages a violent campaign against its African border people, say confidential reports to security council The full horror of the campaign of violence that the government in Khartoum has unleashed against the black African Nuba people of Sudan has been laid bare in two confidential reports by the UN peacekeeping force that the Observer has obtained. The accounts of “devastating” daily aerial bombardment of civilians, “indiscriminate shelling” of crowded civilian areas, summary executions and deliberate targeting of dark-skinned people are contained in a 19-page report requested by the UN security council. A second report details how “active obstruction by state authorities (in South Kordofan) has completely undermined the ability of the peacekeeping force, UN Mission in Sudan (Unmis), to fulfil the most basic requirements of its mandate” in the Nuba region. The report says the humanitarian assistance and protection provided by Unmis have become “inconsequential” as it prepares to leave Sudan, at Khartoum’s insistence, by 31 July. Unmis officials say privately that they have been “deaf and blind” in South Kordofan ever since war broke out on 5 June and cannot even estimate how many people have been killed and displaced by the fighting – widely perceived as a first step towards President Omar al-Bashir’s stated goal of suppressing ethnic and cultural diversity in favour of a rigid Arab-Islamic regime, following South Sudan’s decision to separate from the North. The UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Valerie Amos, said on Friday that 1.4 million people were affected by what she called “skirmishes” in South Kordofan, which borders the now independent Republic of South Sudan, and by Khartoum’s refusal to grant “unhindered access” to them. Causing fury among hard-pressed colleagues on the ground, who have been crying out for much stronger support from the security council, she appeared to cast doubt on their reporting, saying: “We do not know whether there is any truth to the grave allegations of extra-judicial killings, mass graves and other violations in South Kordofan.” The Nuba Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) – formerly allied with the South, but now seeking a northern alliance to overthrow the Bashir government – claims that more than 400,000 people have been displaced and 3,000 killed or disappeared. One Unmis staffer, quoted in one of the documents seen by the Observer, reported seeing the bodies of approximately 150 Nuba lying in pools of blood in just one of the many army barracks in the state capital, Kadugli. Khartoum and the SPLA have accused each other of starting the fighting, after a ceasefire that began in 2002. Unmis’s report for the security council, prepared by its human rights section, notes that the SPLM/A refused to accept the results of disputed state elections in May, but says there is no evidence that it initiated military operations. Rather, it says, the fighting may have been triggered by an ultimatum for Nuba fighters to move to South Sudan by 1 June – an order that was tantamount to “disenfranchising them of their citizenship”, given the promise of partition in July. The report suggests that the “especially egregious” crimes committed by government forces justify referral to the international criminal court. It argues that “the international community cannot afford to remain silent in the face of such deliberate attacks by the government of Sudan against its own people”. Deploring the “gross contempt” and “violent and unlawful acts” of government forces towards Unmis – including execution of a staff member, assaults, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and ill treatment “amounting to torture” – the report says: “Condemnation is insufficient… The international community must hold the government of Sudan accountable for its conduct and insist that it arrest and bring to justice those responsible.” National staff of international aid organisations have also come under attack. Unmis cites the case of a young Nuba woman arrested and accused of supporting the SPLM. Unmis human rights officers saw bruises and scars on her body consistent with her claim to have been beaten with fists, sticks, rubber hoses and electric wires. Underscoring the need for the “independent and comprehensive investigation” Unmis recommends, the Observer has been told – by a hitherto impeccable source not connected to the SPLM/A – that 410 captured SPLM sympathisers were ordered executed on 10 June by Major-General Ahmad Khamis, one of four senior army officers sent to South Kordofan from Khartoum at the start of the war. The source told the Observer that the order to kill divided the military and security services. “Many disagreed with Khamis,” he said. “The prisoners who were taken by military intelligence and the (paramilitary) Popular Defence Forces were murdered. Those with the National Intelligence and Security Service are still alive. There is a possibility some will see sunlight again…” Khamis was one of the main implementers of a government jihad in the early 1990s that brought the Nuba people to the brink of destruction. On my first visit to SPLA-controlled areas in 1995, Khamis, then head of military intelligence, was repeatedly named as being responsible for torture and executions – including by his own hand. With the Nuba region now closed to independent observers, and Unmis unable to move freely, it is impossible to verify or disprove claims like this. Significantly, perhaps, Unmis’s human rights report makes mention of “fresh mass graves” seen on 10 June, the day of the reported executions, near Kadugli’s police training centre. Unmis interviewed eyewitnesses who testified to two other mass graves: one in Tilo, four miles east of Kadugli, where an independent UN contractor saw government troops bulldozing bodies into the ground, and a second between army headquarters and Kadugli’s main market. UN military observers attempting to reach the market site were arrested, stripped and threatened with execution. Despite fighting talk by President Bashir on the eve of partition, senior government officials say a framework political agreement mediated by the African Union last month is still alive. Ethiopia and Rwanda have offered to contribute to a post-Unmis mission to monitor a cessation of hostilities, facilitate negotiation, and support the integration of the SPLA into the Sudanese army. The main point of contention is the timeframe for achieving this: the army wants weeks, the SPLA years. Sudan Africa United Nations Julie Flint guardian.co.uk
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