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Saturday, October 11, 2008 

An Alaskan legislative investigation, nicknamed ‘Troopergate’, concluded Friday that Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin had abused her power during her time as Alaskan governor.

The report, released by a bipartisan investigative committee, found that Palin had violated the state Ethics Act when she allowed her husband to pressure former Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan into firing state trooper Mike Wooten; however, she was well within her rights to fire Monegan because of disagreement on budget cuts.

Sarah Palin had “knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda,” the report went on to say.

Todd Palin, her husband, admitted to trying to forcefully remove Wooten because of alleged actions such as driving under the influence, threatening Palin’s father, and using a Taser gun on his son. The pressure came after a hostile divorce between the governor’s sister and ex-husband, who was accused of threatening the family.

The governor’s explanations of her reasons for firing Monegan had been inconsistent, from denying a “personality conflict” to insubordination and incompetence. She consistently denied, however, the firing being related to Wooten.

“The Palins make no apologies,” a statement released by her campaign said, “for wanting to protect their family and wanting to bring attention to the injustice of a violent trooper keeping his badge and abusing the workers’ compensation system”.

While the investigative committee had agreed unanimously to release the report, a few Republicans on the panel had attempted to halt the investigation, citing political bias. Republican Senator Gary Stevens warned voters to be “cautious” and to “realize there’s much more in it than just the one-page findings”.

Sunday, December 16, 2012 

Former Zimbabwean professional footballer Adam Ndlovu has died in a car accident that also left his brother critically injured. Adam and his brother Peter, also a former professional footballer, were in the accident after failure of a tire on the BMW X5 Adam was reportedly driving. Reports also suggest an unidentified female passenger may have died in the accident.

George Bhebhe, a friend of Adam, spoke to The Zimbabwean about the circumstances of the accident. He said “Adam died early this morning when their vehicle veered off the road after a tyre burst and hit a tree 20 km from Victoria Falls. He died on arrival at hospital. Peter is in critical condition and he is at Victoria Falls hospital in Intensive Care Unit. But arrangements still being made to transfer from there to a hospital in Bulawayo or Harare”.

Both Adam and Peter played for the Zimbabwe national football team and Peter is their all time top goalscorer. During his career Peter played in the English Premier League and played for Coventry, Sheffield United, Birmingham, and Huddersfield. Sheffield United tweeted “Our thoughts are with former player Peter Ndlovu, who has been critically injured in a car accident in his native Zimbabwe. #sufc”

Adam formerly played for the Zimbabwean team Highlanders and at the time of his death coached Zimbabwe Premier League team Chicken Inn, based in Bulawayo.

Friday, March 24, 2006 

The Australian government has granted temporary visas to 42 of the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers who arrived by boat in January. The group accuse the Indonesian military of “conducting genocide in their homeland.” The 36 adults and seven children spent five days at sea in a traditional outrigger boat before arriving in far north Queensland’s Cape York. They have been since been detained under Australia’s Mandatory Detention policy.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the 42 West Papuans have been given temporary protection visas (TPV). “These people have completed their medical and character checks and will be moved into the community,” she said. Most of the group are being relocated by private jet from Australia’s remote immigration detention centre on Christmas Island to Melbourne. Senator Vanstone said a decision was still pending on one of the asylum seekers, as there were further specific case issues to be addressed.

However, the Indonesian government says the refugees should be sent back. Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has told Prime Minister John Howard that the group should not be given political asylum. He assures that they would not be prosecuted. Last month, Indonesia’s ambassador, Hamzah Thayeb, warned that Australia’s relationship with Indonesia would be affected if the Papuans were granted asylum.

A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer dismissed suggestions that the decision would cause a rift between Australia and Jakarta. “We’ve got an excellent bilateral relationship with Indonesia and we wouldn’t expect that any particular issue is going to bring that into question,” he said. Mr Downer personally informed his Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirajuda, of the decision. “It’s a matter of some significance between our two countries,” said Mr Downer.

Indonesia has insisted that there are no human rights abuses in Papua. Djoko Susilo, a member of Indonesia’s parliamentary foreign affairs commission, labelled the decision “an unfriendly gesture by the Australian Government.”

Since their arrival, the 43 West Papuans have accused the Indonesian military of “genocide in their homeland,” taken over by Indonesia in the 1960s after a widely disputed independence referendum.

File:West-Papua-Rally Darwin2.jpg

Herman Wainggai, who spoke for the asylum-seekers, thanked the Australian Government and people for a fair and just decision. “We were threatened in an extremely dangerous position … We had to flee to Australia from the intimidation of the killing and the persecution inflicted by Indonesian authorities against us,” he said.

“We trust that Indonesia will act with maturity and see that the situation in West Papua is very serious and one which must be dealt with peacefully and with humanity, not by violent means,” he said.

The Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) has denounced the Australian government’s decision, urging the government to send a formal protest note to the Australian government over the visas and political asylum granted to the 42 Indonesian citizens. “We question the decision to grant visas and political asylum at a time when the security situation in Papua province is tense,” said member of the House Commission I for defence, foreign and information affairs Effendy Mara Sakti, of the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDIP).

Another House Commission member, Yudy Chrisnandy of the Golkar Party, said the granting of political asylum and temporary visas was unethical and could disrupt relations between the two countries.

Amnesty International has expressed particular concern about human rights violations in Papua, but welcomed the decision. “While welcoming today’s decision … Amnesty now encourages the government to consider the plight of the Papuan refugees, as under Australia’s temporary protection regime the refugees now face isolation from their families left behind and face uncertainty about their future,” the organisation said in a statement. Amnesty reports of “extrajudicial executions, ‘disappearances,’ torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detentions in Papua Province.”

Australian Greens Senator Kerry Nettle also welcomed the decision. “The situation in West Papua is clearly very dangerous for those who assert their right to self-determination, so the decision to grant protection visas is a good one,” Senator Nettle said.

West Papua have been seeking sovereignty since the United Nations handed the province to Indonesia in 1969. A spokesman for the Free West Papua Campaign, Nick Chesterfield, said the decision highlights the dire situation. “What this clearly demonstrates is that the world needs to wake up to what is happening in West Papua and start to actively look at ways of ending the sickening violence that the Indonesian military continues to inflict on the people of West Papua,” Mr Chesterfield said.

“Rather than being isolated and locked up thousands of miles away on Christmas Island, these very courageous individuals can receive the support they deserve from the local community. This decision also means Australians will be able to hear first hand about the atrocities and escalating human right abuses that are unfolding in one of our closest neighbouring countries,” said Mr Chesterfield.

Meanwhile, the “Morning Star” flag of West Papua was raised in Marrickville, New South Wales, by Senator Nettle and the Mayor of Marrickville, Sam Byrne. The flag, officially unrecognised by Indonesia in the West Papuan region, was raised to “urge city citizens to support self-determination for the West Papuans people.”

Uniting Church minister Reverend John Barr, who recently returned from the area, warned of an “intensification of violence” and also recounted demands from protesters to have the Freeport mine and the Indonesian government held responsible for despoiling the Papuan environment. “We have heard one student was shot dead and many are badly wounded. I could hear people yelling and fleeing as my contact spoke to me on the phone from the grounds of the theological seminary,” he said in a statement.

The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club has stated concern that no foreign journalist has had official access to Papua in the past eighteen months. In that period there has been “a significant build-up of troops in Papua with reports of widespread displacement of civilians, arson, and arbitrary detention in the central highlands region.”

Last week, Indonesian media showed police shooting directly at students on local university grounds. Authorities have not released details of casualties among the demonstrators. “I can’t tell you exactly how many were shot,” says Hans Magel. “In such traumatic circumstances, we ourselves are finding it difficult gathering casualty figures. The latest information we have is that 22 were seriously injured.”

Indonesia has effectively maintained a ban on access to Papua for many foreign organisations since 2003. Indonesia’s Minister of Defense, Juwono Sudarsono, said in February that the government will “maintain curbs on foreign media” reporting from Papua. He is quoted as saying, “We feel that our unity and cohesion are being threatened by the presence of foreign intrusion and concerns so there is a balance between international concerns and sovereignty that we want to strike very peacefully.”

Minister Sudarsono also stated that the curbs should “extend to foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and churches, whom he thought might create conflict in the province by encouraging Papuans to campaign on issues of human rights.” He stated that he feared reporters could be “used as a platform” by Papuans to publicize the alleged abuses.

Ken Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, is alarmed at efforts by the Indonesian government to ban or limit press coverage of human rights violations and other issues in Papua. In a letter to President Yudhoyono, Roth urged the Indonesian government to respect press freedom and to allow full press coverage of all issues affecting the province.

Senior Indonesian ministers have vehemently denied that the people of West Papua are being repressed.

Saturday, July 28, 2007 

Australian prosecutors have dropped charges against Dr Mohamed Haneef, the Indian doctor held in Australia in connection with last month’s attack on Glasgow airport.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Bugg, said on Friday that a review he carried out found that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges of providing material support to terrorism laid against Dr. Haneef and that “embarrassing” mistakes were made.

Dr Haneef was released from gaol and into “residential detention” until Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews reviews his earlier decision to cancel Haneef’s visa.

Mr Bugg said that a prosecutor had told a Brisbane court incorrect information. He said that one of his prosecutors told the court that the SIM card at the centre of the affair was found in a Jeep which was laden with explosives and driven into Glasgow International Airport on June 30.

“The first related to the SIM card and was based on a misunderstanding of the facts,” Bugg said.

“The second related to the residence of Dr. Haneef in the U.K. and was based on incorrect material provided by the AFP.”

Australian Federal Police chief Mick Kelty denied that the AFP had made any mistakes and said investigations would continue. He refused to rule out laying further charges against Dr Haneef.

Australian Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews who previously suspended Dr Haneef’s work visa after he was granted bail has said he will review his decision to cancel the visa on character grounds. Mr Andrews said that Haneef had to reside in a place of his choosing and was free to move about the community but had to report to Immigration officials daily by telephone and in person every few days.

Speaking last night, Prime Minister John Howard attempted to distance his government from the affair claiming that his government had no control over how the police operate.

Australian civil rights groups and political parties have strongly criticised the handling of the investigations.

Haneef accompanied by his lawyer Peter Russo and his cousin Imran Siddiqui when he flew out of Brisbane Airport on Thai Airways flight TG 992 to Bangalore, India.