Author: Mick Hartley

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But (via Japundit) Taiwan is getting in on the act:

A map of China showing Taiwan as a part of the PRC has enraged the Government Information Office (GIO), with Minister Pasuya Yao yesterday demanding a correction from publisher Time magazine.

“What the magazine did on the map may confuse our foreign friends and make them believe that Taiwan is a part of China, which is very inaccurate,” Yao said.

“We have forwarded letters to the magazine’s headquarters in New York and its branch office in Hong Kong and told them that Taiwan is not a part of China,” Yao added.

According to Yao, in Time’s latest issue, a story on China’s economic development used a map which included China and Taiwan in the report. While China’s neighboring countries were all labeled in white, Taiwan was labeled beige, the same color as China, which might lead readers to believe that Taiwan was a part of China’s territory.

es.

These measures include closing some 100 reformist newspapers over the past four years; imprisoning journalists and bloggers for criticizing the regime; charging reformists who called for renewing relations with the U.S. with treason; and disqualifying reformist candidates – some in office at the time – from running in elections. As a result, the various students’ and intellectuals’ organizations announced that they would boycott the presidential elections.

In the February 2003 municipal authority elections, and in the February 2004 elections for the Seventh Majlis, voter turnout was only about 50%. Reform-minded voters stayed away from the polls because of Iran ‘s Guardian Council’s mass disqualification of reformist candidates, and also following the conservatives’ judicial measures against Tehran ‘s mayors.

On the question of electoral fraud:

1) On the morning of June 18, the day after the first round of voting, the conservative daily Kayhan (which is close to Iranian Leader Khamenei) published the results of the very close race between Ahmadi-Nejad and Karroubi – even though the outcome of the count was not officially released until that evening. How did Kayhan know in advance?

2) Ahmadi-Nejad jumped from 5.7 million votes in the first round to over 17 million in the second round – a jump that seems suspicious.

3) The number of votes cast for Ahmadi-Nejad in the second round (17 million) exceeded (by nearly 6 million) the total number of votes (11.4 million) cast by the entire conservative camp.

ressure to stop the mass expulsions. Lawyers for the three say that they do not know what happened to them on their arrival in Harare.

Human rights groups and MPs will increase the pressure on the Government today when they present Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, with new evidence for all 114 detainees facing expulsion. Last night officials stopped the deportation of a young woman due to be flown back to Harare.

The woman, who has been sheltering in Britain for three years, was arrested a week ago. She was savagely beaten by Zimbabwean police after her father, a known opponent of Mr Mugabe’s regime, disappeared after being abducted from their home in 2002. […]

The Prime Minister said at his monthly press conference that stopping the return of failed claimants could undermine the Government’s attempts to crack down on abuse of the asylum system. “The worry from our point of view as policymakers is that you will send a signal right across the system that Britain is again open to business on asylum claims that are not genuine.”

For a Prime Minister who prides himself on his moral standing, that’s an extraordinarily shabby statement.

The Independent reports on Zimbabwe:

One month into President Robert Mugabe’s brutal campaign of demolition and displacement, which has cost at least 400,000 people their homes and livelihoods, the scale of the humanitarian disaster is emerging. The victims of this forced expulsion – which has been compared to the devastating policies of Pol Pot in Cambodia – are arriving in the already famine-stricken countryside, where, jobless and homeless, they are waiting to die. Unofficial estimates obtained by The Independent suggest the death rate is already outstripping the birth rate nationwide by 4,000 a week.

The UN has responded by dispatching a special envoy, Anna Tibaijuka, who arrived in Zimbabwe last night, to assess the position. The Tanzanian official, head of the UN habitat programme, is expected to be taken on a carefully organised visit to urban areas where evidence of the pogrom has been hastily cleared.

Meanwhile, in true Orwellian fashion, Operation Clear Out Trash has been renamed Operation Let Us Be Settled and Prosper.

he was still alive, she realised. She had failed her martyrdom mission.

That afternoon, on June 21, the 21-year-old, Wafa Samir al-Biss, was brought before the press by Israeli intelligence. Her neck and hands were covered with scars caused by a kitchen gas explosion six months earlier. The ugly scars – which had been treated in a hospital in Israel – had probably helped turn her into the perfect would-be huriia (virgin), the ideal martyr, since they would make it difficult for her to find a suitable husband.

The decision to publicise her case [see the released pictures of her at the Israeli checkpoint] was intended to show that a terrorist threat remains despite a lull in the intifada since the Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire agreement at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in February.

According to the Israeli doctor who attended Wafa at the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, she received blood transfusions during her treatment. “I told her, with a laugh, that now she has Jewish blood in her veins,” he said, adding sadly that she had “seemed so nice – we got a lovely thank you letter from her family.”

Wafa had been sent on her mission by the Abu Rish Brigade, the small militant faction with links to Fatah. She did not, she said later, regret it, though she stressed that her decision had had nothing to do with her scarring. “My dream was to be a martyr. I believe in death,” she said. “Today I wanted to blow myself up in a hospital, maybe even in the one in which I was treated. But since lots of Arabs come to be treated there, I decided I would go to another, maybe the Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv. I wanted to kill 20, 50 Jews …”

Asked whether she had considered the consequences of her planned attack, that it might have now precluded access to Israel for Palestinian patients who meant no harm and needed special medical treatment that could be achieved only here, she answered: “So what?” With a flat look in her eyes, she said: “They pay you the cost of the treatment, don’t they?”

(via Tim Blair)

try; they are both using the tactic of promising a better economic future to a country that has vast natural resources but has mismanaged them through years of corruption. Until the people of Iran act on a united front they will continue to be both politically and economically cheated. The only good that can come out of this election is that Ahmadinejad will get in, bring in increasingly hardline policies and force everyone to wake up and smell the coffee.
Leila, London, UK

Eight years ago Mr Khatami promised reform and then spent four years saying ‘I would if only I could’! He stood again for another term going on TV shedding tears and complaining that despite having encouraged many people to speak out and seeing them end up in jail without giving them any support, he would really try to implement the reforms next time. So people flocked to the polls once again to choose him. Now, with the reformers disgraced and the Islamic regime completely discredited, they have pulled another trick out of the hat. Mr Rafsanjani, who is already the selected ‘president’ would have been hard to sell to the public due to his dismal record, so they have introduced a bogeyman (Ahmadinejad) in order to make Rafsanjani look more palatable. As always, the people of Iran will fall for the trick. Never mind vote rigging – the whole process is one big fraud!
Fariba Davari, UK

Why should I care who will be the next president of Iran when women can not legally decide where to live, whom to marry or what to study when they do not have the right to get divorce, all based on our so-called constitution law? The best of our presidents promised to act according to such law and we praised him for saying so. Mullahs do not like my wisdom, my opinion, sometimes they even don’t care about my existence. Why should I care for such regime?
Faranak Hariri, Tehran, Iran

ing that it is safe to send Zimbabwean dissidents back home.

Mr Clarke agreed last night to suspend the expulsion of Crespen Kulingi, a leading opposition figure who was due to be deported today. The decision indicates that pressure is mounting on the Home Office to stop the removals.

Hunger strikes by Zimbabwean asylum-seekers spread to more detention centres in Britain yesterday as Whitehall officials hinted at a review of the deportation policy next week.

A senior Foreign Office and Commonwealth source said: “The deportations are down to the Home Office and they must explain why they think it is a safe place to send anyone who has defied Mugabe”….

The Zimbabwe Community Association (ZCA) told The Times that scores of failed asylum-seekers recently removed from Britain had been detained by Mr Mugabe’s secret police as soon as they arrived back in the country. Their families said that they had heard nothing from them….

Refugee groups say that the Home Office is more concerned at meeting quotas to expel failed asylum-seekers than with investigating the fate of those who are expelled….

Morgan Tsvangarai, the MDC leader, sent a taped message saying that his close aide would be tortured if he is returned, but the Home Office said that it had lost the cassette….

The ZCA criticised Britain’s decision to send failed asylum-seekers to Malawi, where they allege that Mr Mugabe’s security agents operate. A spokesman outlined the case of Courage, a 32-year-old father of two, who was deported to Malawi last month, then picked up by agents of the Central Intelligence Organisation. Nothing has been heard of him since.

Tom McNulty, the Home Office Minister, said last night: “We categorically condemn human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and are committed to providing protection to those Zimbabweans in genuine fear of persecution. Since returns were resumed to Zimbabwe last November we have received no substantiated reports of abuse.”

No substantiated reports of abuse? Really, what can you say….

the street in Londonderry in November 1973. The gunman was targeting an army foot patrol. She was the second youngest of five children and the sister of an SDLP councillor.

The Provisional IRA, whose leaders in the city at the time included Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator, blamed the Army and said it had shot a soldier dead in revenge. The IRA statement at the time said: “The people of Derry are aware that we have admitted responsibility for our actions even at times when mistakes were made by us and civilians injured.

“We say categorically that the shooting of young Kathleen Feeney was the work of the British Army and not of the Republican movement.”

But yesterday, in a statement released to the Derry Journal, the Provisionals said: “The IRA accepts responsibility for the death of Kathleen Feeney. Our failure to publicly accept responsibility for her death until now has only added to the hurt and pain of the Feeney family.

“The leadership wish to apologise unreservedly to the Feeney family for the death of Kathleen and for all the grief that our actions have caused to them.” […]

Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, said: “At least the IRA is prepared to stand up and take responsibility for something that they did.”

As the brutality of Mugabe’s regime becomes ever clearer, Africa’s leaders react with…..petulance:

The African Union has rejected calls from the UK and the US to put pressure on Zimbabwe to stop its demolition of illegal houses and market stalls.
An AU spokesman told the BBC that it had many more serious problems to consider than Zimbabwe. […]

[South African] Presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo said he was “irritated” by calls from UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to do more to end the “horrors” in Zimbabwe.

“South Africa refuses to accept the notion that because suddenly we’re going to a G8 summit, we must be reminded that we must look good and appease the G8 leaders,” he said.

“We will do things because we believe they are correct and right.” […]

Correspondents say that many African leaders see Mr Mugabe as a hero for leading the fight against colonial rule.

The Times has more on the forced deportation of Zimbabweans from the UK:

Immigration officials are trapping Zimbabwean couples and forcibly deporting them when they turn up for their wedding ceremonies….

A number of couples who were told that they had to retake their vows in a British register office to prove that they were married have been arrested with their guests and sent back to Harare within hours.

Lawyers claim that before they can get to court to fight their cases, these asylum-seekers have already been expelled. One woman, who gave her name only as Setimbile, was given a date for her register office ceremony in London last month, only to find half a dozen immigration officials waiting for her on the day.

The 26-year-old was not allowed to speak to the man she had married two years earlier in Zimbabwe. She was taken away in handcuffs and flown out within 48 hours. Her family does not know what has happened to her since.

One guest who escaped the wedding raid told how several other members of the family were also arrested. “We followed the Home Office order to prove they were genuinely married, and it was a trap.”

Half a dozen couples who showed up for weddings in Hatfield, Reading and London have been victims of this “sting” by immigration officials.

A spokesman for the Zimbabwe Community Association said: “It is a perfect chance to make sure that you get members of two families in the same place, but is a despicable trick.”

Britain is speeding up the enforced return of failed Zimbabwean asylum-seekers.

The revelation came as the hunger strike by Zimbabweans in Home Office detention spread to more removal centres. A senior immigration official said last night that the numbers taking part had doubled.

The Home Office refused to give precise numbers, though there are claims that staff at some centres are trying to force detainees to break their fast.

Detainees told The Times last night that they have been threatened by staff that if they continue the protest they will be the first to be deported.

Before Jack Straw makes more grandiose speeches about the evil nature of Mugabe’s regime, he should perhaps have a word with his cabinet colleague in the Home Office.