The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- China's Tiananmen Mothers criticise Xi for lack of reforms
- Venezuela's Maduro slams Colombia's Santos for 'betrayal'
- Indian shot dead in growing land dispute in Brazil
| China's Tiananmen Mothers criticise Xi for lack of reforms Posted: 30 May 2013 08:19 PM PDT BEIJING (Reuters) - A group of families demanding justice for the victims of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have denounced new Chinese President Xi Jinping for failing to launch political reforms, saying he was taking China "backwards towards Maoist orthodoxy". The Tiananmen Mothers activist group has long urged the Chinese leadership to open a dialogue and provide a reassessment of the June 4, 1989 pro-democracy movement, bloodily suppressed by the government which labelled it a "counter-revolutionary" event.
In an open letter released on Friday through New York-based Human Rights in China, the group said Xi "has mixed together the things that were most unpopular and most in need of repudiation" during the time of former paramount leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the latter who oversaw the putting down of the protests. "This has caused those individuals who originally harboured hopes in him in carrying out political reform to fall into sudden disappointment and despair," the group said. Xi became Communist Party chief in November and president in March at a time of growing public pressure to launch long-stalled political reforms. Some intellectuals had predicted that Xi would follow in the footsteps of his father, Xi Zhongxun, a reformist former vice premier and parliament vice chairman. Xi has also tried to project a softer and more open image than his predecessor, Hu Jintao. But Xi's government has clamped down on free expression on the Internet and detained anti-corruption activists, giving no sign the party will ever brook dissent to its rule. The Tiananmen Mothers said it has not seen Xi "reflect upon or show remorse in the slightest for the sins committed during the three decades of Maoist communism". "What we see, precisely, are giant steps backwards towards Maoist orthodoxy," the group said. After initially tolerating the student-led demonstrations in the spring of 1989, the Communist Party sent troops to crush the protests on the night of June 3-4, killing hundreds. The topic remains taboo in China and the leadership has rejected all calls to overturn its verdict. A handful of people remain in prison, 24 years on, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a U.S. group that works for the release of Chinese political prisoners. While China grapples with thousands of protests a year, over everything from pollution to corruption and illegal land grabs, none of these demonstrations have even come close to becoming a national movement that could threaten the party's rule. (Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee, Editing by Ben Blanchard and Matt Driskill) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Venezuela's Maduro slams Colombia's Santos for 'betrayal' Posted: 30 May 2013 08:03 PM PDT CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, of "betrayal" on Thursday, saying he had lost faith in him for meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles.
Maduro said he was putting bilateral relations, which were frequently hostile during his predecessor Hugo Chavez's 14-year socialist rule, under review following Santos' meeting on Wednesday with Capriles. The Venezuelan opposition leader, a 40-year-old business-friendly state governor, was in Colombia to press his case that Maduro's presidential election win last month, by just 1.5 percentage points, was fraudulent. "I'm very sorry President Santos has given credence to the fascist Venezuelan right wing," Maduro, 50, said, again accusing Capriles of plotting to overthrow him and saying the Colombian government was now in league with that plan. "There is time for rectification, that is what we call for. Meanwhile, we will continue evaluating all our relations with the Colombian government." Venezuela has already withdrawn its envoy to peace talks in Cuba between Colombia's government and Marxist guerrillas, in protest at the Santos-Capriles meeting. "I made efforts with the Colombian guerrillas to achieve peace in Colombia," Maduro complained during a speech in the central city of Valencia carried live on state TV. "Now they're going to pay us like this, with betrayal. I've lost confidence in President Santos unless he shows me the contrary." Colombia is a major U.S. ally and the government before Santos had dire relations with Chavez's administration. But despite ideological differences, Santos patched things up with Chavez in the name of pragmatism and regional solidarity after taking power in 2010. That helped trade to flow and enabled both sides to chase guerrillas, smugglers and paramilitaries on their long and violence-plagued border. Still in Bogota on Thursday, Capriles criticized other Venezuelan officials' anger over his meeting with Santos as overblown and unjustified. Minutes after Maduro's comments, he gave a scathing reaction via Twitter. "He's lost the plot. He doesn't know where he's going - incompetence and illegitimacy combined!" The refusal of Capriles and his millions of supporters to accept Maduro's election win - which they are disputing in local courts - is infuriating the government, which lambastes him daily as a "fascist" and "coup-plotter." Authorities are considering legal action against Capriles over post-election protests by the opposition, during which some nine people died. But they are also wary of inflaming the situation given that Venezuelans are split down the middle and arresting Capriles would be bound to spark mass protests. The election dispute has made for a traumatic start to the post-Chavez era in Venezuela, an OPEC member with the world's largest oil reserves and a population of 29 million. Chavez died of cancer in March, after naming Maduro as his preferred successor. The political tensions have also hindered attempts to right an economy that, despite massive oil revenues, is suffering from slowing growth, increasing shortages of basic products, and one of the world's highest inflation rates. Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Indian shot dead in growing land dispute in Brazil Posted: 30 May 2013 07:44 PM PDT BRASILIA (Reuters) - A growing conflict over land ownership in Brazil's farm belt turned bloody on Thursday when an Indian was shot dead during the violent eviction of some 200 natives from a disputed property owned by a former congressman. The Terena Indians refused a court order to leave the cattle ranch which they invaded two weeks ago. A federal agency designated the ranch as ancestral native land in 2010, but a local court ruled last year that it belonged to the farmer. The Indians threw stones at riot police who fired tear gas to dislodge the occupiers from the 17,000-hectare property in the southern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which produces soy and corn for export. Brazil's indigenous policy uses anthropological studies to return land to natives and is considered one of the world's most progressive. But it has sparked violence since the country became an agricultural superpower and Indian policy clashed with farming interests. A Federal Police spokesman in the nearby town of Campo Grande said the Indians shot at the police during the clash and it was not clear who was responsible for the fatal shooting since no bullets were found in the body. Authorities opened an investigation to establish who shot the Indian. Four other natives were injured, as well as four policemen who had bullets lodged in their bullet-proof vests, the spokesman said. Reuters reported earlier this month that President Dilma Rousseff has ordered her government to stop turning over farmland to Indians in what the powerful farm lobby says is a hugely misguided effort to right historical injustices. Thirteen percent of Brazil's territory has been set aside for Indians and handing over more is under consideration. Conflicts, like the one in the cattle ranch, are common and are growing increasingly tense. The government's Indian affairs office Funai says the federal justice ministry approved the designation of the disputed ranch in Mato Grosso do Sul as a reserve for the Terena in 2010. But ranchers say they have lived in the area for decades. Farmers praised a government announcement on May 8 that other federal agencies will be involved in land decisions, effectively reducing the jurisdiction of Funai. The farm lobby ultimately wants politicians in Congress to have the last word. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Paul Simao) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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