8 theSun | TUESDAY MAY 5 2009

news without borders

Report: Prince tortured

at least 25 more people
WASHINGTON: An Abu Dhabi
prince already implicated in a
torture scandal caught on tape
has been filmed torturing at
least 25 other people, accord-
ing to a lawyer representing one
of the royal’s former business
associates.
The Gulf emirate has vowed
to investigate after ABC televi-
sion on April 22 aired a video
that appeared to show Sheikh
Issa bin Zayed al-Nahayan (pix),
a brother of United Arab Emir-
ates president and Abu Dhabi
ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed
al-Nahayan, mercilessly beat-
ing a man. The footage, which
sparked an outcry among
human rights campaigners,
was smuggled out of the UAE
by Texas businessman Bassam
Nabulsi, a US citizen who said
he had also been tortured by
Sheikh Issa after a fallout with
the royal.
Nabulsi’s Texas-based lawyer,
Anthony Buzbee, wrote to UAE
authorities on Friday that he had
“more than two hours of video
footage showing Sheikh Issa’s
involvement in the torture of
more than 25 people.”
The letter was addressed to
UAE Minister of Justice Hadef
bin Jua’an al-Dhaheri, the Abu
Dhabi Judicial Department, the
emirate’s acting public pros-
ecutor and the UAE embassy in
Washington.
“I also have access to at
least three witnesses, all of
whom will testify that the bru-
tality exhibited in the videos by
Sheikh Issa is part of a pattern
of conduct that has gone on for
some time, a pattern that was
well known to various govern-
ment officials within Abu Dhabi,”
Buzbee wrote.
The man ABC said was
Sheikh Issa was shown beating
a captive with whips, cattle
prods and wooden panels with
protruding nails. Assisted by po-
lice, he poured salt in the man’s
wounds and ran over him with a
sports utility vehicle.
The victim – who needed
months of hospital care – was
reportedly an Afghan trader
who lost a load of grain worth
US$5,000 (RM18,000).
The incident also highlighted
the tough working and living
conditions of the UAE’s hun-
dreds of thousands of mostly
Asian workers, cheap labour
key to the country’s booming
development.
In an initial letter to ABC
News, the UAE government
had described the incident as
an assault and said the matter
was settled “privately,” adding
that police followed “all rules,
policies and procedures.”
But on Thursday, the Abu
Dhabi human rights office said
in a statement that the govern-
ment “unequivocally condemns
the actions depicted in the
video.”
It also vowed to investigate
the matter and make the
findings public “at the earliest
opportunity.” Although he was
“encouraged” that Abu Dhabi
had decided to look into the
incident, Buzbee expressed
doubt that a true investigation
would go forward.
“I am skeptical about
whether there will be a genuine
investigation, given the fact that
various Abu Dhabi government
officials have been aware of
these issues for many years, and
given the fact that members of
the government were actually
involved in, or covered up the
torture” of Nabulsi, the Afghan
trader and others, he said.
– AFP
Zuma under new scrutiny
as presidency nears
Race
relations
JOHANNESBURG: South Af- as head of state, though he will only
in rica’s new parliament convenes take office on Saturday at an inau-
Malaysia: tomorrow to elect Jacob Zuma as guration ceremony in Pretoria.
president, under intense scrutiny “One of his main priorities is
Focus on due to his checkered past and wor- to create confidence in him as a
the big ries about a leftward tilt under his person,” said Dirk Kotze of the
picture administration. University of South Africa.
Zuma’s African National Con- “What is going to be also im-
pg 10 gress (ANC), which has dominated portant is that he addresses the
politics since the fall of apartheid uncertainty or the fear that the left
15 years ago, won a sweeping vic- will dominate him and that he will
tory in general elections nearly two largely be manipulated by the left.”
weeks ago. Many South Africans admire
With 66% of the seats of parlia- Zuma’s up by the bootstraps suc-
ment, the ANC will easily elect him cess story in the rise of a self-taught
former herdboy to the top of national
politics.
Under apartheid, Zuma spent 10
years imprisoned alongside Nelson
Mandela and another 15 years in
exile, climbing the ranks of the ANC
to become deputy president under
Thabo Mbeki.
Then his tale turned sour, as
he developed a fierce rivalry with
Mbeki who sacked him in 2005
amid corruption allegations.
Zuma bounced back with sup-
port from trade unions and the
communist party to wrest control of
the ANC from Mbeki in December
2007. The party axed his rival as
head of state just nine months later.
Corruption charges against Zuma
Iran rejects protests seeking release of reporter
TEHERAN: Iran dismissed yesterday san Ghashghavi said such protests were an
protests launched by members of a press “interference” in legal procedures.
freedom group seeking the release of US- “The Iranian judiciary is an independent
Iranian journalist, Roxana Saberi, who has entity and any kind of imposition or inter-
been jailed on espionage charges. ference in the legal process is contrary to
Four US members of Reporters Without international norms,” Ghashghavi said.
Borders began a hunger strike on Sunday He said Saberi’s case was going through
outside UN headquarters in New York, an appeal process and “we have to wait to
pressing for the release of Saberi, who see what the appeal judge decides.”
is being detained in a notorious Teheran Saberi, 32, who was sentenced to eight
prison. years in jail last month after being convicted
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Has- of spying for Iran’s archfoe the United
were finally dropped just two weeks
before the elections. Prosecutors
said they could convict him, but
dropped the case due to apparent
political meddling in the timing of
the legal process.
Despite all that, his promises to
expand South Africa’s social safety
net, create a national health insur-
ance scheme, fight crime and create
jobs won the ANC a solid mandate
in elections.
The questions now are how he’ll
achieve all that with the economy in
the doldrums and who he’ll include
in his cabinet.
Zuma is already trying to soothe
worries among business leaders
who fear he’ll lean toward his union
allies. In the ANC’s victory speech,
he said he would consult with both
unions and business on finding
ways to cushion the country from
the global downturn.
Respected daily Business Day
predicts the left will demand their
pound of flesh. “With his elbow
room restricted by the global eco-
nomic situation and a multitude of
opposing interest groups he needs
to keep on side, Zuma is under im-
mense pressure to trade influence
for past support and future loyalty,”
it said in an editorial. – AFP
States, has herself been on a hunger strike
since April 21 in protest at the sentence,
her family says.
But the Iranian judiciary has denied that
she was refusing to eat or that her health
had been affected. Saberi was initially
detained in January reportedly for buying
alcohol, an illegal act in the Islamic republic.
The United States has voiced deep concern
about the case, dismissing the charges
against Saberi as baseless and calling for
her release. – AFP

China quake survivors face

intimidation, detention
BEIJING: Survivors of China’s devastating earth-
quake last year face detention and harassment
if they protest over collapsed schools, corruption
claims and other grievances, Amnesty International
said.
While Beijing is pouring billions of dollars into
rebuilding towns in southwestern Sichuan province
flattened by the May 12 quake, the government
also has waged a less public campaign against
citizens who blame more than natural destruc-
tion for the many schools that collapsed, killing
thousands of children, the human rights advocacy
group said.
“By unlawfully locking up parents of children
who died, the government is creating more misery
for people who have said in some cases they lost
everything in the Sichuan earthquake,” said Rose-
ann Rife of Amnesty in a statement e-mailed with
the report released yesterday.
In the week before the anniversary of the quake,
which killed around 80,000 people, the contention
between state authorities and discontented survi-
vors described by Amnesty could intensify.
On the weekend, several grieving parents of
Juyuan, where a high school building toppled in the
quake, said their plans to mourn their dead children
were stopped by police.
“The police and town officials told us that we
should not make such a fuss,” said one of the par-
ents, Yang Rengui, whose son died in the school.
Ahead of the anniversary, official media is
praising the rebuilding effort and acts of selfless
sacrifice
But the Amnesty report highlights the tensions
the quake left, pitting a one-party government that
prizes control against people convinced neglect
and graft made schools vulnerable and has tar-
nished rebuilding efforts.
Many of the tools of control Chinese authorities
have honed to guard stability have been applied
with particular intensity in quake-hit areas of
Sichuan, Amnesty said.
Parents demanding inquiries into claims that
corruption and lax quality-control weakened
schools that toppled in the quake had been de-
tained in “black jails” – informal detention rooms
in hotels and offices, Amnesty said.
Chinese lawyers and human rights activists
who have offered help to grieving families had
been intimidated and detained, and their efforts
to bring cases to court stymied, the report said.
Rife said Amnesty had no firm estimates of
numbers of detentions of parents and protesters.
“But we assume we’re only hearing about a small
number of the abuses,” she said from Hong Kong.
An official in the Sichuan government propa-
ganda office said she had not seen the Amnesty
report but rejected its claims. “This group has no
right to criticise us,” said the official, who refused
to give her name. “China has made many achieve-
ments in reconstruction, so why do they exagger-
ate and distort problems?” – Reuters