Indonesian Migrant Worker Shares Horror Story After Working in Saudi Arabia

Jakarta Globe, Fitri, June 17, 2012

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Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara. Supiani binti Abdul Salam had worked in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, for less than a year before tragedy struck.

In July last year, just 10 months after getting a job in the kingdom as a domestic worker, the abuse began. She was whipped with a belt by her employer’s wife for not mopping the floor properly.

The woman later accused Supiani of leaving a bad smell in her bedroom when she cleaned it, and pushed her out a third-floor window.

“I blacked out,” Supiani, 26, told the Jakarta Globe at her home in Mataram recently. “When I woke up I was in hospital, where I’d been in a coma for a week.”

After she came out of the coma, her employer, Abdulrahman Najrani, moved her to a cheaper hospital. A week later, he drove her to the airport and sent her on a plane back to Jakarta — without paying her any of the 1,900 Saudi riyals ($500) that he owed her.

Supiani came forward with her story as migrant worker activists prepare to mark the one-year anniversary of the execution of Ruyati binti Sapubi, another Indonesian maid in Saudi Arabia.

Ruyati was beheaded on June 18 last year for killing her employer’s mother, reportedly because of the abuse she was subjected to by the elderly woman.

However, the Saudi authorities only notified Indonesian officials about the execution two days after is occurred, triggering criticism in Indonesia and prompting Jakarta to issue a moratorium on sending migrant workers to the kingdom until the fate of dozens of other Indonesians on death row there could be ascertained.

Fifty Indonesian migrant workers in a shelter for troubled workers in Jeddah,
 Saudi Arabia. They had sought for protection from Indonesian representative
office and about to return to Indonesia. (Antara Photo)

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Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Nayef dies

Heir to the throne and deputy prime minister dies in hospital in Switzerland following illness

guardian.co.uk, Jo Adetunji and agencies, Saturday 16 June 2012

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz al Saud died in
Geneva. Photograph: Fahad Shadeed/Reuters

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz al Saud has died in Switzerland following an illness.

Nayef, 78, who was next in line to the Saudi throne, died in hospital in Geneva on Saturday, according to Saudi state television.

The prince had been interior minister in the kingdom since 1975 and deputy prime minister. He spearheaded the country's post-September 11 crackdown on al-Qaida. He rose to the position of crown prince after the death of his elder brother, Crown Prince Sultan, in October last year.

The prince had been ill for some months and had been in Switzerland since May for treatment. He had undergone medical tests in the US and although there had been speculation that he had cancer, this has never been officially confirmed.

Earlier this month, Nayef's brother and deputy interior minister, Prince Ahmed, told al-Watan newspaper that Nayef was "well and in good health … and he will soon return" to Saudi Arabia.

Nayef was considered to be more conservative and less keen on reform than his uncle, the current King Abdullah. However, in 2001, he supported a move to issue women in the kingdom with their own identity cards – previously they could only be registered on the card of a father or husband.

Nayef was initially criticised for shifting the blame from the country following the September 11 attacks, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. It was also reported that he would be listed, along with other members of the royal family, in a lawsuit filed by the victims of the attacks, over claims that family members were engaged in payoffs to al-Qaida, but his name was later to be removed due to diplomatic immunity.

In February 2002 there came a change of heart. Under pressure from the US and attacks by Islamist militants within the kingdom – including a declaration from al-Qaida of its aim to overthrow the Saudi royal family – Nayef became the first Saudi official to publicly confirm that Saudi nationals were involved in the US attacks.

He was later responsible for a successful crackdown of radicals and al-Qaida militants in Saudi Arabia, who were responsible for a wave of bloody attacks in the country between 2003 and 2006. His campaign forced many to flee to neighbouring Yemen.

Nayef had also pushed for a more hardline stance towards Iran.

His uncle King Abdullah said in a statement that funeral prayers would be held for the prince after sunset on Sunday, before a traditional burial. Television channel Al Arabiya reported that his funeral would be held in a mosque in the holy city of Mecca.

The succession is likely to pass to another son of the former king, possibly Nayef's younger brother, Prince Salman, the governor of Riyadh.

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Australia armed forces 'abuses' shock PM Julia Gillard

BBC News, 15 June 2012

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The abuse allegations span
several decades

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has expressed shock at a report detailing decades of sexual and other abuses in the country's armed forces.

Hundreds of documented cases of abuse against boys as young as 13 have come to light in a report commissioned by the country's defence ministry.

Ms Gillard said she was now considering setting up a Royal Commission into the allegations which go back to the 1950s.

The alleged abuses may have continued until the 1980s.

The BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Sydney says there are nearly 850 cases of abuse in the military that have been recorded in the report.

Boys as young as 13 were subjected to sexual and physical abuse in the days when they could join the military much younger than now.

Details of the abuses have been obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation under a freedom of information request.

Ms Gillard said the report made "truly disturbing reading" and that the allegations were "deeply distressing".

"We now have to work out what's the best way of dealing with all of this given how far back in time many of these claims go," she said.

"A Royal Commission for this matter or at least for some of the more serious allegations is one option."

The report suggested paedophiles in the past joined the military to gain access to young people in the same way they sought out positions in orphanages, schools and churches.

"It is certain that many boys were subjected to serious sexual and physical assault and other serious abuse... from the 1950s through to the 1970s and possibly into the 1980s," the summary said.

It added that some of those who were assaulted later inflicted similar abuse on others, warning that the trauma of victims could have led to mental health, or drug and alcohol problems later in life.

The report said that "there have been substantial levels of abuse" in the military and "very little evidence that perpetrators had been called to account".

"The culture within parts of defence at different times has strongly discouraged victims or witnesses from reporting abuse," it said.

Some of the accused may now hold middle and senior management positions, it added.

In March a review by a top legal firm concluded that Australia's military faced years of inquiries into allegations of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

YouTube introduces ‘youtube.co.id’

The Jakarta Post, Mariel Grazzella,  Thu, 06/14/2012

YouTube, the largest online video sharing community, announced on Thursday the launch of youtube.co.id, which will provide content tailored to the Indonesian market.

The site will feature content from YouTube's partners in Indonesia from the media and music industry.

The media companies are Kompas TV, Kompas Cybermedia, Viva Media Group and MyTrans.com. Meanwhile, the recording companies include Aquarius Musikindo, Nagaswara and Musica Studios.

YouTube has also signed license agreements with Indonesian musicians and composers under Wahana Musik Indonesia (WMI), which would enable the musicians to earn from advertisements that appear on YouTube while their video is being played.

Several companies, such as consumer goods producer PT Unilever Indonesia, mobile phone operator Telkomsel, Bank Central Asia and Blibli.com online shopping site will start placing advertisements on YouTube.

Bandung to host conference for freedom of Palestine

Antara News, Thu, June 14 2012

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Bandung, West Java (ANTARA News) - Bandung city will host the International Conference for the Freedom of Al-Quds and Palestine on July 4-5, 2012, declared the chief of the organising committee, Sonny Sugema, here on Thursday.

Hotel Savoy Homan Bandung

The personalities who are expected to deliver a speech in the event include Syeikh Aly Al-Abbasy (Imam in Al-Aqsha mosque, Palestine), Syeikh Umar bin Sulaiman Al-Asyqar (University of Jordan) and Marzuki Alie (Chief of the Indonesian Parliament).

Sonny said that people from 20 countries, including Australia and the United States, are expected to attend the upcoming conference, which will be held at Hotel Savoy Homan Bandung.

"Fighting for Palestine`s freedom is a challenge for all the nations in the world who are against colonialism," he remarked.

Sonny expressed hope that the spirit of the Asia-Africa Conference, which was held in Bandung for the first time in 1955, will inspire the current conference`s participants to join the fight for Palestine`s freedom.

Editor: Heru

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Hundreds of CEOs to spend wintry night on Sydney streets for charity

English.news.cn   2012-06-14        

       

SYDNEY, June 14 (Xinhua) -- About 270 corporate chief executive officers (CEOs) in Sydney have registered for the annual Vinnies CEO Sleepout, spending a wintry night on the streets for charity, local media reported on Thursday.

The annual event will take place in capital cities across Australia on June 21.

The bosses will experience what it is like to be homeless for a winter night and help the St. Vincent de Paul Society to raise funds.

Participants will only be allowed to have a piece of cardboard and a sleeping bag when they sleep rough on the night during the event.

They will have to find themselves a cozy spot to bunk down at Carriageworks in Redfern, an inner-city suburb of Sydney.

Organizers hope to raise 5 million AU dollars (4.98 million U.S. dollars) for the nation's 105,000 homeless.

"They'll get a cup of soup but after 10 p.m., they'll literally be bedding down to sleep," a spokeswoman for Vinnies told the Australian Associated Press (AAP).

Editor: An

Saudi Arabia takes tiny steps on women’s rights

Trustlaw, By Lisa Anderson, Wed, 13 Jun 2012

Muslim pilgrims make their way to perform prayers at the Grand Mosque
 upon their arrival in Mecca, during the annual haj pilgrimage in Mecca,
Saudi Arabia, November 3, 2011. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

NEW YORK (TrustLaw) - Small cracks have appeared in the political wall separating women from their rights in Saudi Arabia in the last year, but the wealthy and conservative kingdom remains one the world’s most repressive when it comes to women’s freedoms.

An absolute monarchy, heavily influenced by the ultra-conservative Wahhabi form of Islam, Saudi Arabia requires women to submit to male guardianship and guidance in nearly every aspect of their lives from cradle to grave.

This means control by a father, husband, brother, son or other male relative over where a woman goes outside the home, whether she attends school, what she studies, whether she works, whom she marries and even what medical procedures she undergoes.

As such, Saudi Arabia ranks second only to India as worst country for women among the world’s biggest economies, according to a global survey released on Wednesday by TrustLaw, a legal news service run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Among the top five worst places for women in the 19 countries that make up the Group of 20 richest nations (excluding the European Union), India and Saudi Arabia were followed by Indonesia, Mexico then South Africa, according to the perceptions survey of 370 gender specialists.

============================================ 

• Canada best G20 country to be a woman, India worst - TrustLaw poll 
• Healthcare and reproductive rights divide U.S. and Canada 
• India advances, but many women still trapped in dark ages 
• Violence puts Mexico among worst G20 countries for women 
• Fullcoverage: G20women.trust.org

============================================

“Given Saudi Arabia’s institutionalized and state-supported discrimination against women, it is surprising that Saudi Arabia did not rank lower,” said Yasmeen Hassan, global director of Equality Now, a New York-based organisation working to end violence and discrimination against women.

“Women and girls in Saudi Arabia are treated as perpetual minors living under male guardianship all their lives – with restrictions on employment, political participation, travel, education and healthcare,” added Hassan.

“They do not have the ability enter into marriages of their choice and have extremely limited rights within marriage. They are not allowed to drive or to enter the Olympics.”

She referred to Saudi Arabia’s lack of any state sports programmes for women and girls and its apparent decision to be the only country to send a male-only team to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Taking the Koran, Islam’s holy book, as its constitution, Saudi Arabia follows sharia, or religious, law. The system provides women few legal protections in terms of property, freedom of movement, domestic violence and no guarantee of gender equality.

King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s 87-year-old ruler, has engaged in a gradual programme of social reforms, some of them easing some restrictions against women, despite strong opposition from the fundamentalist clerical establishment.

In September 2011, he decreed that Saudi women would have the right to vote in, and stand for office in, municipal elections starting in 2015.

In early 2012, he put into effect a decree that women would replace men as sales clerks in the kingdom’s more than 7,000 lingerie shops, a move that could reduce the 28-percent unemployment rate among Saudi women, according to reports of comments by Labour Minister Adel Faqih.

A similar change is expected to take effect in cosmetics shops this July.

A week after the government deadline to replace salesmen with women in lingerie shops, King Abdullah abruptly fired the hard-line chief of the country’s religious morality police, whose officers reportedly harassed some women who had taken the jobs.

For the new head of the unit, formally known as the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the king appointed a cleric who publicly had expressed more liberal views about women’s employment and the social mixing of men and women.

King Abdullah’s actions and the vocal backlash from conservative clerics may reflect the country’s internal struggle to redefine the role of women and the conflict between tradition and modernity.  However, he decreed no change in the male guardianship system or in the ban on women driving.

Saudi Arabia remains the only country in the world that forbids women to drive a car, a situation that has become symbolic of its discrimination against women.

On 11 June, Equality Now issued an alert calling on the Saudi government to lift the ban on women driving and asking for global support on the first anniversary of the “Women2Drive” campaign launched by Saudi activist Manal Al-Sharif.

On June17, women and men around the world are being asked to drive to Saudi embassies and consulates and honk their horns to protest against the driving ban on women.

In the TrustLaw survey, Canada was ranked the overall best G20 country for women, followed by Germany, Britain, Australia and France. The United States came sixth.

The TrustLaw survey asked respondents to rank the G20 countries in terms of the overall best and worst place to be a woman as well as in six categories: quality of health, freedom from violence, participation in politics, work place opportunities, access to resources such as education and property rights and freedom from trafficking and slavery. Survey respondents came from 63 nations on five continents.

Ex-head of Vatican bank has archive on senior Italian and Church figures

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the former head of the Holy See’s bank compiled a secret dossier of compromising information about the Vatican because he feared for his life, it was claimed. 

Telegraph UK, by Nick Squires, 07 Jun 2012

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi  Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli

In the latest twist in a scandal which has convulsed the papacy of Benedict XVI, Mr Tedeschi reportedly gave copies of the documents to his closest confidantes and told them: “If I am killed, the reason for my death is in here. I’ve seen things in the Vatican that would frighten anyone.”

One of the documents was reportedly titled “internal enemies” and contained the names of senior clergy and powerful Italian politicians.

Other emails and letters related to “money of dubious provenance” being allegedly funnelled through the Vatican bank, according to Corriere della Sera.

Appointed in 2009, the 67-year-old banker was sacked as head of the Vatican’s bank on May 24 – the day after the Pope’s butler was arrested on suspicion of stealing confidential letters from Benedict’s desk and leaking them to journalists.

Mr Gotti Tedeschi was allegedly ousted by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who as the Vatican secretary of state is the Pope’s deputy, in a dispute over efforts to improve the transparency of the scandal-ridden bank, known formally as the Institute for Religious Works.

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Mr Gotti Tedeschi appeared to have compiled the dossier as a means of him defending himself against charges of incompetency, mismanagement and possible money laundering.

The reforms were intended to clean up the Vatican’s finances so that it could be included on the OECD's “white list” of countries least at risk from money laundering and other financial irregularities.

Earlier this year the city state was listed as a “jurisdiction of concern” for money laundering in the US State Department’s annual International Narcotics Control Strategy report.

Mr Gotti Tedeschi was so fearful for his safety that he hired bodyguards and sought advice from a private investigation agency, the Italian media reported.

The sensational claims evoked memories of one of the Vatican’s darkest chapters – the mysterious death in 1982 of Roberto Calvi, nicknamed “God’s Banker”, who was president of Italy’s largest private bank, the Banco Ambrosiano.

After the bank, which had close links with the Vatican, went bankrupt, Calvi was found hanged from scaffolding beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London, amid suspicions that he had been murdered by mafia godfathers as punishment for losing money they had invested in the bank.

“Gotti Tedeschi was nicknamed ‘the Pope’s banker’ and he feared meeting the same end as ‘God’s banker,’” said Il Fatto Quotidiano, a daily newspaper with a reputation for investigative reporting.

The secret dossier allegedly compiled by Mr Gotti Tedeschi was discovered by Carabinieri police after they raided his home and office in Milan and Piacenza, both in northern Italy, on Tuesday.

He was questioned by prosecutors for up to nine hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, during which he reportedly told them: “I’m afraid for my life”.

The raid was part of a separate investigation involving allegations of bribery at Finmeccanica, an Italian defence company that has extensive interests and thousands of employees in the UK.

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No respite for pope as more documents leaked

(SaLuSa channelled by Mike Quinsey, March 16, 2012)
“…. Each project is underway and that will result in a sudden wealth of information reaching you. Events are such that the facts can no longer be kept hidden, and with that there will be an explosion of people coming forward to tell what they know. It may take longer where the Vatican is concerned, as it is akin to a secret society that has kept its dark secrets hidden well away. However, nothing will remain concealed for too long, as you are entitled to know the truth and the extent to which you have been deceived….”  

(Matthew channelled by Suzanne Ward, June 3, 2012)

“ ….   5. Because the dissemination of accurate information is crucial, another good indicator of the light’s progress is that mainstream media censorship clearly is on the decline. For instance, even though the Vatican is one of the kingpins under the Illuminati umbrella, it now is public knowledge that investigation into the Vatican’s financial affairs is underway. Ultimately this will lead to uncovering the cesspool of darkness in that tiny sovereign state, including that it is the international headquarters of satanic worship and a vast storehouse of stolen art treasures. …."  New

China publishes new action plan responding to human rights challenges

English.news.cn   2012-06-11               

Full Text: National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2012-2015)

BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government on Monday publicized its second national plan for human rights protection, promising to address challenges and work for the happiness and dignity of every citizen.

The new plan, which addresses human rights protection work from 2012-2015, was published by the State Council Information Office and follows the previous one that covered the 2009-2010 period.

Due to the influences and limitations of natural, historical and cultural factors, as well as the current level of economic and social development, China is still facing many challenges in the development of its human rights cause and it has a long way to go before fully allowing people to enjoy human rights, the document says.

"It should be remembered that China remains a developing country that is fraught with problems from unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable development," it says.

The 2012-2015 period will be a crucial time for the country to improve its human rights situation while implementing the 12th Five-year Plan (2011-2015), deepening reform and opening-up and accelerating the transformation of the country's economic development pattern, it says.

In the next three years, the Chinese government will combine its human rights endeavors with economic, political, cultural, social and ecological construction, the document says.

The document says China will safeguard and improve people's livelihoods and spare no efforts to solve problems of the utmost and immediate concern to the people.

Moreover, the country will practically safeguard its citizens' economic, political, social and cultural rights and promote social equity and harmony, so to ensure that every member of society lives "a happier and more dignified life," it says.

Liu Huawen, an expert with the Human Rights Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua that an action plan for human rights protection can be regarded as a sign that the state attaches great importance to human rights issues.

Liu quoted a report from the United Nations as saying that only 29 countries in the world, including China, have worked out national action plans to protect human rights and, among them, only eight have published such plans two or more times.

"The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted at the World Conference on Human Rights held by the United Nations in Vienna in 1993, urged countries to adopt such national plans," he said. "However, many countries, including those frequently pointing fingers at China, did not respond to the call."

All targets and tasks set by the action plan for 2009 and 2010 were fulfilled as scheduled. Among them, 35 percent of the binding targets and over 50 percent of the targets concerning people's livelihood had been met ahead of time or exceeded.

Over the past three years, China has made considerable progress in human rights protection.

In March, China's top legislature underlined the principle of "respecting and safeguarding human rights" by explicitly writing it into the nation's Criminal Procedure Law, after such a principle was written into the Constitution eight years ago.

Prof. Zhou Wei, director of the human rights law center of Sichuan University, said the new plan responds to more public concerns and includes more binding targets related to people's livelihood.

For instance, Zhou said, the plan includes measures to cope with air pollution and monitor air quality as an effort to protect people's right to enjoy a good environment, as the public has expressed increasing concerns about dusty weather and PM2.5, or particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in diameter.

"Human rights protection is not an easy mission in any country. We need more time and persistent efforts," he said.

GUARANTEEING CIVIL RIGHTS

"China endeavors to develop socialist democracy, improve the socialist rule of law, expand the orderly political participation of citizens and guarantee people's civil and political rights in an all-around way," the document says.

In the plan, the country promises to observe more stringent judicial procedures for issuing the death penalty and the supreme court's review of cases in which the death penalty is issued.

China will improve the trial procedures in death penalty cases, the document says, adding that second-instance trials for all death penalty cases will be open to the public and the review of the death penalty should include the questioning of the defendant and hearing the opinions of his or her attorney, if the attorney so demands.

The supreme court will publicize typical cases to clarify standards for applying the death penalty, it says.

Measures will also be adopted to protect the rights of the citizens involved in lawsuits and law enforcement activities. For instance, the country will equip police investigation rooms with sound and video recording devices as well as video surveillance systems to prevent any violation of citizens' rights.

It will also step up efforts in investigating and punishing officials who abuse their power and violate citizens' rights in cases such as those involving illegal detention.

PROTECTING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

In the plan, the Chinese government pledges to protect religious activities in accordance with the law.

The country will improve the organization and management of the Hajj, or the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, and provide better services for pilgrims, the document says.

The government will provide financial support for the construction of new school buildings in the Buddhist Academy of China as well as the expansion and improvement of the China Islamic Institute.

More money will be budgeted for rebuilding and expanding religious venues in Tibetan-inhabited areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY

In a bid to protect the people's right to be informed, the government will work to make government affairs public and push forward the disclosure of government information, the document says.

"Priority will be given to the disclosure of government information in the areas of financial budgeting, allocation of public resources, approval and implementation of major construction projects and construction of social welfare undertakings," the plan says.

The country will also steadily push forward the disclosure of auditing information, especially the results of investigations of major cases.

It will establish a system of informing the public of leading officials' appointments and dismissals, the document says.

Vacant leadership positions and related job responsibilities, as well as basic information of the candidates for such posts, will be announced within an appropriate span of time.

Editor: Chao Luan

Japan team create liver from stem cells: report

Google/AFP, 8 Jun 2012 

Japanese researchers have created a functioning human liver from

stemcells, a report says (AFP/Getty Images/Illustration, Darren Hauck)

TOKYO — Japanese researchers have created a functioning human liver from stemcells, a report said Friday, raising hopes for the manufacture of artificial organs for those in need of transplants.

A team of scientists transplanted induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into the body of a mouse, where it grew into a small, but working, human liver, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

Stemcells are frequently harvested from embryos, which are then discarded, a practice some people find morally objectionable. But iPS cells -- which have the potential to develop into any body tissue -- can be taken from adults.

A team led by professor Hideki Taniguchi at Yokohama City University developed human iPS cells into "precursor cells", which they then transplanted into a mouse's head to take advantage of increased blood flow.

The cells grew into a human liver 5 millimetres (0.2 inches) in size that was capable of generating human proteins and breaking down drugs, the Yomiuri reported.

The breakthrough opens the door to the artificial creation of human organs, a key battleground for doctors who constantly face a shortage of transplant donors.

Taniguchi's research could be "an important bridge between basic research and clinical application" but faces various challenges before it can be put into medical practice, the Yomiuri said.

An abstract of Taniguchi's research was delivered to regenerative medicine researchers ahead of an academic conference next week, but Taniguchi declined to comment to AFP before the meeting.

Two separate teams, one from the United States and one from Japan, discovered iPS cells in 2006.

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"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

Activists demand an explanation for Li Wangyang's death

Deutsche Welle, 8 May 2012

After being found hanged in a hospital in central China, activists demand to know what really happened to the 62-year-old who saw it as his mission to fight for the democratization of his country.

All eyes are on China's human rights record after 62-year-old dissident Li Wangyang was found dead at a hospital In Shaoyang, central China, on Thursday.

New York-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) reported that Li's sister and brother-in-law had found him in the hospital ward strung up to a windowsill with bandages around his neck. His feet were reportedly touching the ground. According to eyewitness accounts, 40 police officers immediately stormed into the hospital and removed his body, raising concerns over an accurate assessment of the cause of death.

Authorities have blamed his death on suicide. Li's friends and family, however, do not believe this to be possible and suspect foul play, especially because his feet were touching the ground when he was found. 

Chen Guangcheng perturbed Chinese
authorities by turning to the US for help

'No indication' of suicidal tendencies

Up to his death, Li was also heavily guarded. Zhang Shanguang, Li's close friend from prison, told DW there was "no indication whatsoever" that Li had suicidal tendencies.

"Right up to his death, he was acting normal. He showed great interest in the situation in Syria. There was no indication whatsoever that he wanted to take his own life," Zhang said.

Chinese authorities did agree on Thursday to allow an autopsy of his body. But skeptics like Zhang question the authenticity of the autopsy that is to be carried out. He said the authorities were only allowing it to deter negative attention.

"The local government is probably worried that Li Wangyang will turn into another Chen Guangcheng," Zhang told DW. "Because that would put the Chinese government in a bad light."

China of late has drawn negative international attention after the high-profile and widely-reported case of Chen Guangcheng, who caused a diplomatic row between the US and China after escaping from house arrest over a month ago to the US embassy in Beijing.

Like Chen Guangcheng, Li Wangyang was no stranger to the Chinese penal system. He spent 22 years in jail after first being sentenced to 13 years imprisonment - 11 of which he served - for supporting trade unions in the 1989 student uprising. In 2001 he was sentenced again to 10 years in prison for filing a lawsuit for maltreatment while in prison - jail conditions, he claimed, were so bad that they left him nearly blind and deaf and in overall poor health.

Chinese authorities quashed dissent in June, 1989

All for his country

His poor health is the reason he had been in the hospital at the time of his death. Li's close friend, Li Zheng'an, told Hong Kong Cable TV:

"Whenever I see him, I feel bad … really bad. A healthy person being tortured to death. Why? Because he cared about the future of his country?"

Many people were arrested in the student movement in 1989. And many others were killed in the infamous Tiananmen Square Massacre. In his last interview taken by Hong Kong Cable TV on May 24 this year, Li said he had felt obligated to take part in the movement back then. "I wanted to do my part to turn China into a democratic society."

"Many people were killed in the massacre. But I only had to go to jail," Li continued. "But I haven't been killed. Even if I were killed, I wouldn't regret a thing. I have a responsibility to fight for the democratization of my country, to see the introduction of a multiple party system as soon as possible. And not even death can stop me."

Activists demand a full investigation into his death.

Author: Sarah Berning

Editor: Shamil Shams

4 chefs from well-known hotels charged with corruption

The Jakarta Post, Khushwant Singh, Asia News Network (The Straits Times),Fri, 06/08/2012

(Singapore) - Four chefs among the 19 said to have accepted nearly $1 million in kickbacks from a seafood supplier were charged on Friday with corruption.

All four men were cooking for Chinese restaurants of well-known hotels here and are believed to have ordered seafood delicacies like shark's fins only from Wealthy Seafood Product and Enterprise from 2006 to 2009.

Tan Ah Teng, 46, of Goodwood Park Hotel, is accused of accepting $193,322 from Tay Ee Tiong, the former proprietor of the Bedok-based seafood supplier.

Tan, who remained as a chef of the hotel's Min Jiang restaurant, faces 20 charges.

Chik Ka Chung of Wan Hao restaurant in Marriot Hotel resigned when the case against Tay, 55, made headlines in 2011.

He faces 21 charges and is accused of accepting $177,704 in kickbacks.

Yang Lai Fatt, formerly with Meritus Mandarin, was charged on 15 counts of corruption and is said to have accepted $128,405.

Goh Wooi Cheat, 48, formerly the chef of Summer Palace of Regent Hotel, is said to have received $158,818 from Tay. He faces 14 corruption charges.

He is presently an executive chef at Grand Hyatt Beijing and was given permission by the court to travel there.

Pre-trial conferences for all four cases will be held on July 19.

In September 2011, Tay was jailed for 18 months.

He had pleaded guilty to paying bribes totalling $992,404 to 19 chefs from 17 hotels and restaurants, to induce them to continue ordering seafood products from Wealthy.