Reuters - May 31st, 2003

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's ruling military said on Saturday it took opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 17 of her top party members into ``protective custody'' after violent clashes between her supporters and opponents in the north of the country.

Myanmar junta spokesman Tin Win told a news conference Suu Kyi was taken into custody late on Friday after hundreds of her supporters clashed with opponents, leaving four people dead and as many as 50 injured.

Myanmar officials did not say what sparked the violence in the northern town of Yaway Oo, about 560 km (400 miles) north of the capital, and denied media reports that her vehicle had been fired on by an unidentified gunman on Friday night.

``There was no shooting at all, and nobody accompanying Aung San Suu Kyi was injured,'' Brigadier General Than Tun told the news conference.

The announcement that Suu Kyi was in custody came just hours after security officials sealed her NLD party headquarters in the capital, amid mounting criticism of the pro-democracy icon by the country's ruling military.

``It is too early to talk about the future of the NLD party,'' Brig. Gen. Tun said.

He declined to say how long the 1991 Nobel peace laureate would be held. Suu Kyi was released from house arrest only a year ago after intense international pressure.

Telephone lines to the homes of senior members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party in Yangon were not working on Saturday afternoon.

Suu Kyi, whose NLD won 1990 elections in Myanmar by a landslide but was denied power by the military, was on a month-long tour of northern Myanmar and had been due to return to the capital on June 4.

The junta has been annoyed at Suu Kyi's trips outside the capital, where she has drawn large and adoring crowds, a sign the daughter of Myanmar independence leader Aung San remains popular despite spending the better part of a decade under house arrest.

RETURNING TO YANGON

Sources close to the junta told Reuters that Suu Kyi would be returned to the capital on Sunday.

Earlier on Saturday witnesses saw security officials put a large padlock on the door of the NLD headquarters in Yangon and remove a party flag. The keyhole on the lock was sealed and several plainclothes officers were posted outside.

The closure of the NLD's headquarters comes days before the scheduled arrival of a top U.N. envoy, Malaysian Razali Ismail, due to visit June 6-10 in a bid to revive stalled talks between the junta and opposition.

Those talks now appear problematic, despite Than Tun saying ``confidence-building'' between the government and opposition would remain unaffected.

The talks have been stalled in the confidence-building phase since they began in late 2000, after Suu Kyi was put under house arrest. The government has never responded to Suu Kyi's calls for substantive dialogue on political change.

Suu Kyi also spent six years under house arrest from 1989 to 1995 after emerging as the country's main opposition leader during a failed pro-democracy uprising in 1988.

The military government said on Friday it had told Suu Kyi to tone down her public appearances during her northern tour, saying large crowds had caused ``traffic jams and commotion.''

State-run media also reported scuffles between NLD members and anti-Suu Kyi protesters. The NLD has often complained that Suu Kyi has been harassed by government supporters on her trips.

BEIJING (AP) -- Four Chinese intellectuals accused of criticizing the government on the Internet and setting up a democracy study group have been sentenced to up to ten years in prison for subversion, a human rights group reported.

The Beijing Intermediate Court delivered the sentences at a hearing Wednesday, almost 1 1-2 years after the four were tried, Human Rights in China said.

Growing numbers of Chinese have been sentenced to prison for content posted on the Internet as part of the Communist Party's drive to shut-off the Web as a forum for free discussion or political criticism.

Geologist Jin Haike and journalist Xu Wei, were sentenced to 10 years for ``incitement to subversion'' the New York-based group said in a statement faxed to journalists late Wednesday. Internet engineer Yang Zili and free-lance writer Zhang Honghai were sentenced to eight years on the same charge, it said.

The four, all around age 30, were arrested in March 2001 after posting essays on the Internet with titles such as ``China's democracy is fake,'' and ``Be a new citizen, remake China,'' according to a copy of the original indictment against them released by a Hong Kong-based rights group.

In May 2000, they had set up the New Youth Society to discuss reform of China's social and political system, according to HRIC and other groups.

China's communist rulers tolerate no challenges to their monopoly on political power and have been steadily ratcheting up controls over content the Internet.

HRIC said all four complained of abusive treatment in detention. Court officials weren't immediately available for comment.

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Faced with growing protests by farmers and government workers, President Alejandro Toledo declared a 30-day state of emergency and authorized the military to clear strikers from Peru's major highways.

Early Wednesday, dozens of police in riot gear evicted hundreds of striking teachers -- many still groggy with sleep -- camped in front of Congress in the capital, Lima.

But the main target of the measure was the farmers, who have blocked Peru's roads with boulders and burning tires to demand lower taxes on some crops and protection from imports. Other sectors are demanding higher wages.

``We have the responsibility to govern 26 million Peruvians. We have the responsibility to protect citizens and the public order,'' Toledo said in a nationally televised address announcing the state of emergency Tuesday.

The state of emergency gives police and the military the authority to use force to clear the highways, restore order, detain strikers and enter homes without warrants. It also limits freedom of movement and prohibits public assembly.

Congressman Luis Iberico, from a party allied with the government, said on cable news Canal N that approximately 12 of Peru's 24 provinces would be under military control and that civil liberties would be suspended.

Iberico said a decree would be issued Wednesday declaring the ongoing teachers' strike illegal.

Toledo's message came after state health workers went on strike Tuesday, joining the thousands of farmers, teachers and judiciary workers protesting throughout the country.

On Tuesday, police worked to clear stretches of roadway blocked by boulders and burning tires. The farmers began their protest on Monday.

Earlier, Interior Minister Alberto Sanabria said that parts of 35 highways had been blocked and that 15 arrests had been made, mostly near the town of Huarmey, 150 miles northwest of Lima on the Pan-American Highway.

``We have to put order in each of these places,'' Sanabria said.

Tuesday's measure is first time Toledo has declared a nationwide state of emergency.

In June of last year, he placed Peru's second largest city, Arequipa, and the surrounding region under a state of emergency for five days in order to quell violent riots against the government's plan to privatize a public electrical company that served the city.

That decree was lifted after the government suspended the planned auction.

There are signs that Toledo -- whose popularity has dipped sharply since he took office in July 2001 -- will face even greater protests in the near future.

Retired police officers have threatened to join protesters on June 5 because of their low pensions and to support active police in pay demands.

``The pay is miserable. I don't know how police can live on this amount,'' retired police Col. Dino Baca told reporters, noting that police earn about $200 a month.

An Interior Ministry intelligence report quoted in La Republica newspaper's Sunday magazine said that in the coming two weeks some 30 protests, marches, strikes and roadblocks have been planned by various groups across Peru.

Of the current group of protesters, the teachers have been at it the longest, opening their strike on May 12 in their demand for higher pay.

Teachers currently earn about $190 a month. The government has offered to raise their salaries by about $30 a month, but the teachers have said it is not enough.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's military and the security organizations that supported Saddam Hussein's regime have been dissolved, and a new defense force ``representative of all Iraqis'' will be set up to replace them, the U.S. civil administrator announced Friday.

The move was the latest in a series of steps designed to eliminate vestiges of Saddam's regime from postwar Iraq.

``The Coalition Provisional Authority plans to create, in the near future, a New Iraqi Corps. This is the first step in forming a national self-defense capability for a free Iraq,'' said the statement released by L. Paul Bremer, the administration's top official.

``Under civilian control, that corps will be professional, nonpolitical, militarily effective, and representative of all Iraqis,'' it said.

The statement did not elaborate on when the new defense force would be set up. But U.S. officials have in the past indicated it would include members of the army, navy and air force who were not compromised by their association to the banned Baath Party and who were not involved in criminal acts.

Under the new orders, the Ministry of Defense, the Republican Guard and ``other specified security institutions which constituted and supported the most repressive activities of Saddam Hussein's regime,'' also have been disbanded.

Founded in 1980, the Republican Guard -- a force tens of thousands strong that had a separate command structure from the rest of the army -- had the best equipment, the best training and the best pay. This was meant to ensure the elite corps would remain loyal and defend Saddam in an emergency. Its commanders were closely watched by intelligence agents who reported to Saddam's son Qusai.

In contrast, Iraq's army was seen as demoralized and poorly equipped, battered by the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, the first Gulf War and more than a decade of U.N. trade sanctions imposed because of the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Friday's order also ended conscription, turned the property of the dissolved entities over to the new administration and dismissed all employees of the armed forces, Republican Guard and the Defense Ministry.

It also abolished the Information Ministry, which tightly controlled Iraq's media and the work of foreign journalists.

The announcement follows the administration's May 16 decree abolishing Saddam's Baath Party and ordering the dismissal of party officials from the civil service.

Military personnel who did not fall under the anti-Baath order will receive severance pay of one month's salary, the statement said.

It said officers with the rank of colonel or above will receive no benefits because they ``will be presumed to be in the barred classes, unless they prove otherwise.''

``These actions are part of a robust campaign to show the Iraqi people that the Saddam regime is gone, and will never return,'' the statement said.

Before the latest war, the Iraqi military had a nominal strength of more than 300,000 men. Most of them melted away during the coalition offensive, and only a few thousand were captured as prisoners of war.

Former noncommissioned officers and officers from the three services demonstrated on Sunday in Baghdad, demanding back pay and other benefits owed to them since the collapse of Saddam's regime on April 9.

They also said nonpolitical personnel should be considered for jobs in the new armed forces.

A Chinese internet operator, Huang Qi, has been sentenced to five years in prison for subversion after he allowed articles about China's 1989 pro-democracy protests to appear on his website.

Huang was convicted and sentenced 10 days ago at the end of a trial that began two years ago in Chengdu in south-western Sichuan province, Chinese legal officials said.

Huang was the first person China put on trial for internet crimes. Since his arrest, several others have been detained for posting political material online, according to human rights groups.

None of the articles on the website were written by Mr Huang, but were posted by visitors to his site.

Huang's sentencing followed a secret order issued on 28 April by Luo Gan, a member of the party's ruling Standing Committee in charge of law and order, to "sternly suppress 'enemy efforts'", the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Full story here.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba sentenced five men to life in prison for attempted to hijack a plane to the United States, the island's authorities said on Saturday in a statement published by the ruling Communist Party daily Granma.

A Havana court convicted the five men of terrorism for planning to commandeer a plane with a stolen rifle and knives.

The five would-be hijackers, and three accomplices -- who received jail sentences ranging from 20 to 30 years -- were arrested as they prepared to take over a domestic airliner at the Isle of Youth airport on April 10, during a spate of hijackings by Cubans trying to reach the United States.

On April 11, Cuba executed three men who hijacked a Havana Bay commuter ferry with a handgun and knives in an attempt to sail 90 miles across to Florida.

Editor's commentary: Which means that they can all go home because that's what living in Cuba is - living in one giant prison where the only hope is in escaping it. They are sentenced to live their lives in Gulag Cuba until they die. What a terrible destiny!

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- A former Yugoslav army captain, long sought by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for his alleged role in the massacre of more than 200 people during the 1991 Croatian war, was extradited to the Netherlands-based court Saturday.

Capt. Miroslav Radic, accused of supervising the killing of civilians and prisoners of war during Croatia's war for independence, flew from Belgrade to the Netherlands, where he was brought to the United Nations detention center outside The Hague, the tribunal said.

Tribunal spokesman Jim Landale said Radic would appear before a judge soon and be asked to enter a plea.

Radic surrendered to Serb authorities last month after spending nearly eight years in hiding. He was extradited to the tribunal following a routine judicial procedure.

Radic's lawyer, Borivoje Borovic, said in Belgrade that his client ``doesn't feel guilty.''

Radic was part of an army unit commanded by Gen. Mile Mrksic that besieged the eastern Croatian city of Vukovar in 1991, shelling it for months.

The indictment against Radic alleges that the Serb-led troops under his command removed at least 200 non-Serbs from Vukovar's hospital in November 1991 and transported them to a nearby pig farm, where most of them were shot and buried in a mass grave.

Mrksic surrendered to The Hague last year and has pleaded innocent. The court denied his request to be released until his trial. The third man sought in the Vukovar massacre, Col. Veselin Sljivancanin, remains at large.

Croats consider Vukovar, located near Croatia's eastern border with Serbia and Montenegro, the successor to Yugoslavia, as a symbol of Serb wartime cruelty.

Serbia has been under Western pressure to ensure that all Serb war crimes suspects are brought to justice. If it fails to do so, it risks losing financial aid and other support.

Iraqis have uncovered what is thought to be one of the largest mass graves found since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime.

BBC correspondent Barbara Plett says the remains of up to 3,000 people had been found so far, and the total uncovered could be as many as 15,000.

The grave was found in the small village of al-Mahawil, located near the city of Hilla, about 56 miles (90 km) south of Baghdad.

Among the remains are thought to be the bodies of political prisoners killed after a Shia Muslim uprising against Saddam in 1991 but also entire families.

BBC correspondents say the stench at the site is unbearable and a group of US marines who visited said it was like looking into hell.

Human rights groups believe that up to 200,000 people may be buried in sites across the country.

Full story here.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The United States declared Saddam Hussein's Baath Party dead Sunday, with the war's commander telling Iraqis that the instrument of their deposed dictator's power was dissolved and promising to purge its influence from the country it dominated for 35 years.

Gen. Tommy Franks' message, delivered in Arabic by an announcer on the coalition's Information Radio, broadcast a clear message over the AM radio waves across postwar Iraq: Any activity by Baath Party holdouts who oppose U.S. occupation will not be tolerated.

``The Arab Baath Socialist Party is dissolved,'' Franks said, but high difficulties remain in genuinely eliminating it.

American administrators are struggling to balance the need for a fresh start with an unwelcome reality -- that thousands of Iraq's civil servants had Baath affiliations.

Franks' order came a month after American troops invaded Baghdad and drove out Saddam's regime, which used intrigue and terror to make sure the minority Sunni Muslim-dominated party extended its reach and control into all corners of Iraqi society.

The statement told Iraqi citizens to collect and turn in any materials they had relating to the party and its operations. It called them ``an important part of Iraqi government documents.''

Unseating the Baath, which advocated Arab unity but became a personal tool of Saddam and his lieutenants, was considered a top priority of American military planners in the run-up to the Iraq war, which began March 20 and largely ended by mid-April.

Banning was the next logical step -- one that has followed American military victories in the past. Allied occupiers banned the Nazi Party in Germany after World War II, and the Fascist Party also was banned in Italy. But lower-level party figures were rehabilitated if they renounced the old regimes and were cleared of specific criminal wrongdoing by tribunals.

The general's order Sunday was in some ways academic, given that the Baath regime is no more and the U.S. military and its civilian administrative counterpart occupy the country.

But some upper-level government and party leaders, including Saddam, remain unaccounted for. The United States says it has made hunting them down a high priority.

For Iraqis who lived under Saddam's brutality for entire lifetimes, the news was unthinkable mere months ago -- a coda to the convulsions of history they have spent recent weeks watching from front-row seats.

``The people are liberated from fear, from their chains. We were living in a big prison,'' said Amir Sadi, 25, of Baghdad. ``The Baath Party was like a gang. It wasn't a political party.''

Whatever it was, it was everywhere.

In the weeks since fighting ebbed, the U.S. occupying force's administration has moved to appoint its own overseers to government ministries and bring people back to work with an eye toward excluding Baathists who worked closely with the Saddam regime.

However, membership or affiliation with the party was required for many government and professional jobs, and American officials have acknowledged that purging one-time Baathists from the ranks of Iraq's civil service entirely may be neither possible nor desirable.

That could prove contentious. The acting health minister was the subject of a demonstration by doctors last week because of his political past and Baath links, and more such protests are likely.

Franks' statement also said that ``apparatus of Iraqi security, intelligence and military intelligence belonging to Saddam Hussein are deprived of their authority and power.''

The general emphasized, though, that freedom of expression -- including political expression -- would be ensured under coalition occupation.

``All parties and political groups can take part in the political life in Iraq, except those who urge violence or practice it,'' he said.

The Baath Party lurched to power briefly in Iraq in 1963 before staging its takeover in 1968. Saddam, who reportedly got his start in the party as a clandestine killer, was a Baath force starting in the late 1960s but did not formally grab control until 1979.

As many as 1.5 million of Iraq's 24 million people belonged to the party. But only about 25,000 to 50,000 were full-fledged members -- the sort of elite targeted by U.S. officials.

The Baath Party was founded in neighboring Syria in 1943 and spread across the Arab world, promoting Arab superiority and Arab unity with a violent, Soviet-style party structure. Syria is ruled by a rival Baath faction headed by President Bashar Assad.

The Baath's specter still looms in Iraq. In recent days, anti-Saddam graffiti on walls in the Jadiriyah neighborhood have been defaced, with all the words painted over except one: ``Saddam.'' That makes Iraqis wonder: Are its forces in hiding, waiting for their moment?

``We are not free to express our opinions,'' said Hamid Haidar, a driver, informed of the Baath's demise. ``We are tired and in a miserable state.''

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Sunday Times newspaper said Iraqi intelligence agents infiltrated al-Jazeera, the Arab world's most widely watched television station, in an attempt to win favorable coverage.

The Sunday Times said documents uncovered by opponents of Saddam Hussein after he was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion force last month showed Iraq's intelligence service had three agents working inside Qatar's al-Jazeera television network.

According to the documents, one alleged agent passed on two letters written by Osama bin Laden, blamed for the 2001 attacks on the United States, to his Iraqi handlers. Two cameramen were also said to be Iraqi agents.

Full story here.

Editor's commentary: Now this is a good terror link between Saddam, Al Qaeda and al-Jazeera. Bin Laden terrorized, Saddam, sponsored and al-Jazeera spread lies and propaganda glorifying terror and hatred against America. Someone has already deleted this article on Sunday Times web site fearing that web of lies and terror would be totally exposed. That is not in French, German and Russian alliance interests also known as Axis of Hypocrisy and Deception.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A hard-line Iranian court has sentenced 15 liberal dissidents to jail terms of up to 11 years for anti-state propaganda and insulting top officials, sources close to the defendants said on Saturday.

The dissidents, members of a ``religious nationalist alliance'' which advocates the separation of religion and state, were arrested during a hard-line crackdown against leading critics of Iran's Islamic establishment two years ago.

Tehran's Revolutionary Court handed out sentences ranging from four to 11 years and banned the defendants from any political activities for 10 years, Marzieh Mortazi-Langroudi, wife of one of the dissidents, told Reuters.

They were found guilty of a range of crimes including propaganda against the state, insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and collecting confidential state documents, said Mohammad Sharif, lawyer for six of the defendants.

The dissidents have 20 days from Sunday to appeal the verdicts.

``I believe that the rulings are illogical and I hope they will be looked into at the appeals court because the charges are baseless,'' Mortazi-Langroudi said.

A Revolutionary Court last year sentenced more than 30 liberal dissidents from the now-banned Freedom Movement of Iran for up to 10 years on charges of trying to overthrow the Islamic system. They are still free waiting for their appeals court rulings.

BEIJING (AP) -- Two labor activists who led some of China's biggest protests in 50 years were sentenced to prison Friday on subversion charges, a defense lawyer said.

Yao Fuxin was sentenced to seven years by a court in the northeastern industrial city of Liaoyang, while Xiao Yunliang was given four years, said Yao's attorney, Mo Shaoping.

Calls to the Liaoyang prosecutor's office went unanswered.

The men were arrested last year after protests by tens of thousands of laid-off workers demanding better benefits from bankrupt state-owned factories. They were among the largest protests reported since China's 1949 communist revolution.

Labor discontent is strong across China's northeast, a center for state-owned heavy industry that has cut millions of jobs amid economic reforms. Liaoyang is 370 miles northeast of Beijing.

Yao and Xiao have been kept in the court's detention center since their one-day trial in January, said Mo. He and Xiao's lawyer did not attend the sentencing because of restrictions imposed to curb the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Hundreds of riot police sealed off the area around the court house, said Xiao's daughter, Xiao Yu, who attended the sentencing with Yao's daughter and two labor representatives. Other family members were kept outside, she said.

``It's too terrible,'' Xiao Yu said. ``We really don't know where else we can go to get a fair answer.''

Mo said Yao will appeal his sentence.

The New York-based China Labor Watch said the sentences handed down were too harsh.

``It is not acceptable,'' Li Qiang, the group's executive director, said. ``This shows that the Chinese government is suppressing Chinese workers' peaceful struggle.''

The court said the two men's subversive activities also included having contact with ``hostile elements and foreign media,'' China Labor Watch said.

MOSCOW , May 8 (Tanjug) - Serbia and Monyenegro is a fictitious country, Kosovo is cut off from it, and the process of disintegration will not stop there and will stop only when the country is completely dismembered, assessed the wife of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Mira Markovic, in an interveiw to the Moscow daily "Savrseno Tajno."

Yugoslavia, in her assessment, is fully economically dependent on foreign countries, chaos reigns in the industry, and the basic material ressources are sold to foreign and local rich people, regardless of how they acquired their wealth.

Editor's commentary: It is really hard to comprehend that internationally wanted murder suspect is free and able to give interviews to the press while Russian police is closing both eyes on Interpol and international community. Mira Markovic's whereabouts are still officially unknown and Russia didn't even admit that Mira Markovic is there at all. What is Putin gaining with protecting internationally wanted murderer? After all lowdowns of Putin's presidency it is hard to believe that he stands any chance of getting another term as Russian president. Who is else in Moscow? Saddam Hussein?

A mass grave has been uncovered near the Iraqi city of Babylon which appears to date back to a failed 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein.

The uprising broke out in the aftermath of the first Gulf War and was brutally repressed. Tens of thousands are thought to have died.

US marines at the site said the bones included those of children aged between 10 and 12.

The marines, who attempted to cordon off the site ahead of the arrival of forensic scientists, said they had found documents dating back to 1990 and needles scattered over the bodies in an attempt to keep animals from digging there.

"We suspect that this happened during the 1991 uprising and eyewitnesses say they saw people drive up here to dump the dead," Lieutenant David Lewis told Reuters news agency.

"Some of the skulls appear to have been cut open, maybe they were experimenting with the prisoners.

"Some were executed, you can see bullet holes in their skulls. Some were still strapped to metal structures."

Full story here.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia warned North Korea on Friday against smuggling drugs, summoning the communist state's ambassador after police seized a North Korean freighter allegedly involved in a $50 million heroin haul.

Thirty North Korean crew, two Malaysians, a Singaporean and a Chinese national have been charged with aiding and abetting in the import of 110 pounds of heroin around two weeks ago. The North Koreans have protested their innocence.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the case raised concerns over the reclusive North Korean government's possible involvement in the international drug trade and he had summoned the North Korean ambassador in Canberra to a meeting.

``The ship is North Korean-owned. North Korea is a socialist state. There is no private enterprise in North Korea. We understand there was a member of the Korean Workers' Party on board the ship,'' Downer told reporters in the city of Adelaide.

``It is important they understand that what is completely beyond the limits for Australia is for another country to be trafficking drugs into our country and trying to sell them to our young people to make money for their economy. That would be a matter of complete outrage.''

Australia is one of the few western nations to have diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.

Most of the crewmen of the freighter Pong Su have been remanded in custody by a Melbourne magistrate to reappear in court in mid-August.

They have not had to enter pleas but in earlier court appearances insisted they were innocent. The other defendants are due to reappear in court in mid-July.

Allegations have floated around since the 1970s that North Korea was involved in drug smuggling and other illicit activities such as counterfeiting American dollars in order to prop up its derelict economy.

In recent years, Japan and Taiwan say they have become significant markets for homemade North Korean amphetamines.

Police say the heroin seized in Australia last month was a known brand from Myanmar in the Golden Triangle.

The Pong Su was apprehended on April 20 when Australian special forces abseiled aboard after it was shadowed for four days by a navy vessel.

Registered in the North Korean port of Nampo but sailing under a Tuvalu flag, Australian prosecutors allege the vessel's fuel tanks had been extended to allow it to travel greater distances on drug-smuggling missions.

A prosecutor told the Melbourne magistrate's court it carried no other cargo and was well off its normal trade routes between China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam.