(Reuters) – Former premier Tony Blair has postponed a party at the Tate Modern art gallery celebrating the launch of his autobiography because of threats from protesters, his office said on Wednesday.
Anti-war demonstrators had planned to disrupt the reception on Wednesday evening and a group of celebrated artists including Tracey Emin and Vivienne Westwood had called on the gallery to cancel the “disgraceful” event.
Blair has also been forced to cancel a signing session for “A Journey” at a bookstore in central London.
“It has been postponed for the same reason as the book signing,” a spokesman for Blair said.
“We don’t want to put our guests through the unpleasant consequences of the actions of demonstrators.”
At the weekend, protestors hurled eggs and shoes at the former prime minister during a promotional event in Dublin.
Blair, prime minister for Labour between 1997 and 2007, led Britain into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In particular, the occupation of Iraq by Western coalition forces was widely opposed and contributed to a dive in Blair’s popularity.
Emin, Westwood and musician Brian Eno, were among figures from the arts world who wrote a letter to the Guardian newspaper on Wednesday to voice their concern about the Tate Modern event.
“It is disgraceful that the Tate is being used for this purpose,” they said.
(Reporting by Matt Falloon; Editing by Steve Addison)
An MP has held talks with a Turkish diplomat in an attempt to get justice for two Leeds United fans who were murdered in the country 10 years ago.
Chris Loftus, 35, and Kevin Speight, 40, were killed in Istanbul on the eve of Leeds’ Uefa Cup semi-final against Galatasaray on 5 April 2000.
Four men were convicted of involvement in the murders but were bailed pending an appeal which has still to be heard.
Leeds MP Fabian Hamilton* said his talk with the Turkish ambassador went well.
He said: “I was impressed at how articulate he was and how concerned he was that this particular case is a running sore in Anglo-Turkish relations.
“It’s something that he wants to see put to bed, not just for the sake of the relationship between our two countries but he was very concerned and expressed a lot of concern about the families of the victims.”
Wreaths laid
Mr Hamilton hopes Turkey’s aspiration to join the European Union could be used as leverageto get progress in the long-delayed case.
He said the recently-appointed ambassador said the Turkish government could not directly interfere in judicial proceedings.
“But I pointed out to him that Turkey is an aspiring member of the European Union and we do want Turkey to join the European Union, all political parties here in great Britain are in favour,” he said.
“But this issue has to be resolved because it’s symptomatic of a judicial system that is not working fairly and transparently.”
Mr Hamilton has campaigned for justice alongside the men’s families.
In April about 300 fans joined them to mark the 10th anniversary of the deaths by laying wreaths at Leeds United’s Elland Road ground.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-11220754, 7 September 2010
* “New Jewish ministers and the Miliband rivalry” by Jessica Elgot, The Jewish Chronicle, May 14, 2010
An anti-war campaigner has attempted to make a citizen’s arrest on former prime minister Tony Blair over alleged war crimes.
Activist Kate O’Sullivan managed to get through tight security to confront Mr Blair as he held a book signing in Dublin.
The 24-year-old from Cork claims to have queued for 90 minutes and went through airport style security – handing in all her belongings and going through a metal detector – before she attempted to arrest Mr Blair.
She says the former Prime was blasé about her accusations: “He didn’t say anything, He just signed the book, he looked down and then looked at security.”
Ms O’Sullivan, a member of the Irish Palestine Solidarity Movement, was detained for almost half an hour before she was cautioned by gardai.
Earlier, shoes and eggs had been pelted at Mr Blair as he arrived at the bookshop on O’Connell Street in Dublin city centre.
ITN
A website offered reward For Tony Blair’s Arrest earlier this year
UK, Wednesday January 27, 2010
Website Offers Reward For Tony Blair’s Arrest
A website offering a reward to people who try to arrest former Prime Minister Tony Blair for alleged “crimes against peace” has raised over £9,000 in just two days.
The website, called Arrest Blair, was launched on January 25 – just four days before he was due to give evidence to the Chilcott inquiry into the Iraq war.
It was created by writer George Monbiot, an environmental and political activist who has a weekly column in The Guardian newspaper.
Launching the website, he wrote: “We must show that we have not, as Blair requested, ‘moved on’ from Iraq, that we are not prepared to allow his crime to remain unpunished.”
The website stipulates the citizen’s arrest must be peaceful and that anyone attempting it will be paid a quarter of the money donated – currently just over £9,200.
It also states there must be no injuries to Mr Blair or those around him and that the incident must be reported in “at least one mainstream media outlet in a bulletin, programme or article”.
Anyone claiming the reward must also prove they are the person featured in the report and come forward within 28 days of the attempt.
For people who have not carried out a citizens arrest in the past, the website offers advice on how to go about it, including handling police.
They are recommended to approach Mr Blair “calmly”, and “in a gentle fashion to lay a hand on his shoulder or elbow, in such a way that he cannot have any cause to complain of being hurt”
They are urged to loudly announce: “Mr Blair, this is a citizens’ arrest for a crime against peace, namely your decision to launch an unprovoked war against Iraq.
“I am inviting you to accompany me to a police station to answer the charge.”
Mr Monbiot, 47, said although any arrests would be “largely symbolic” they would nonetheless have “great political resonance”.
He added: “There must be no hiding place for those who have committed crimes against peace. No civilised country can allow mass murderers to move on.”
A police sergeant is facing the sack after being caught on CCTV injuring a woman by pushing her into a cell.
Sgt Mark Andrews was filmed dragging Pamela Somerville, 59, across the floor of the police station in Wiltshire before shoving her into the cell.
CCTV footage captured her lying on the floor for a minute before struggling to get up with blood pouring from a head wound.
Former soldier Sgt Andrews, 37, was convicted of assault causing actual bodily harm after a trial at Oxford Magistrates Court earlier this summer. He will be sentenced on Tuesday and is expected to lose his job. The case was brought after another officer at Melksham station reported his behaviour to a supervisor.
It happened in July 2008, when Ms Somerville was arrested after being found asleep in her car. She was detained for failing to provide a sample for a breath test. Then aged 57, she was thrown in the cell at Melksham police station after being grabbed in the station lobby by custody sergeant Andrews.
CCTV footage shows Andrews coming back into the cell after she gets to her feet and calls for help before another person comes to check her and paramedics are called. She was taken to Royal United Hospital in Bath and needed stitches in a gash above her eye.
Flights redirected to Baghdad after political objections and local protests
Owen Bowcott
At least sixty people are being held at Colnbrook detention centre, near Heathrow, awaiting deportation to Iraq. Photograph: Tim Ockenden/PA
Home Office deportation flights are being prevented from taking failed asylum seekers directly to northern Iraq because of a diplomatic dispute with the Kurdish regional government (KRG).
A ban has in effect been placed on incoming flights from the UK landing forcibly returned Kurds at the regional airport in Irbil. Political objections and local protests have led to the UK Border Agency redirecting the planes to Baghdad.
Another round-up of failed Iraqi asylum seekers has been ordered in the past week. At least 60 people are now being held at Colnbrook detention centre, near Heathrow, awaiting removal by charter flight. Those about to be deported have been given tickets dated 1 or 6 September.
Thousands of Iraqi refugees remain in Britain, many having arrived before the 2003 invasion when Saddam Hussein was persecuting the Kurds.
The Home Office’s forced repatriation of asylum seekers denied permission to remain in Britain has been diplomatically fraught. The first flight to Baghdad last year led to airport officials in the Iraqi capital refusing to accept all but a handful of passengers. Most were denied entry and sent back to the UK.
To assuage political sensitivities, Iraqi interior ministry officials are permitted the unusual privilege of interviewing and screening detained asylum seekers in UK detention centres to confirm they will accept each individual.
The UK policy of sending deportees back to, or through, the central provinces of Iraq, which include Baghdad, is in defiance of guidelines issued by the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, which warns that the area remains unsafe due to suicide bombs and attacks by al-Qaida militants.
One Iraqi deported from the UK was killed by a car bomb in Kirkuk in 2007. The continuing violence claimed more than 60 lives following a series of co-ordinated blasts in Iraqi cities during just one day – 25 August – last week.
The KRG, the semi-autonomous administration that runs the Kurdistan region of north-east Iraq, controls its own militia. For many years, it has objected to forcible returns of failed asylum seekers from western European countries, threatening to withdraw diplomatic co-operation.
Many deportation flights from the UK have nonetheless been sent to Iribil; on the first flights deportees were ordered to wear flak jackets for their return to what was deemed a safe country.
An official at the KRG representative office in London said: “The KRG has asked the British government to send only those people who want to go back. It is opposed to forcible deportations.”
The last UK deportation flight to Kurdistan was about five months ago. The Home Office now accepts that it will have to send Kurdish Iraqis back via Baghdad unless the KRG agrees to reopen direct flights.
The border agency told the Guardian: “UKBA only ever returns those who both the agency and the courts are satisfied do not need our protection and refuse to leave voluntarily.
“Currently we have agreement with the government of Iraq to return all Iraqi citizens to Baghdad. We make arrangements for those who require onward travel to their home towns, and this includes those travelling to the KR [Kurdish region].
“These arrangements worked well on the recent charter flights to Baghdad and we are confident they will continue to do so.”
Political opposition to forcible deportations has been led by the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees, which has organised protests both in western European countries and within Kurdistan.
More than 2 million Iraqis fled the sectarian violence which erupted after the 2003 invasion. Most sought sanctuary in neighbouring Arab states but many were attracted by the opportunities of employment in the EU.
Richard Whittel, of the Coalition to Stop Deportations to Iraq, said: “It is inspiring that popular pressure in Kurdistan forced the government there to take a stand against these deportations but disturbing that our government persists with them, pandering to the myth that immigration is to blame for the country’s problems.”
Among the common complaints raised by opponents of forced removals have been persistent allegations that failed asylum seekers are mistreated by security guards when they are forced on to planes in Britain for flights back to Iraq.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/31/kurdish-uk-asylum-seekers-iraq, 31 August 2010
A special constable has been jailed for three years after being convicted of a vicious assault on a drunken off-duty soldier while trying to arrest him.
Peter Lightfoot attacked Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall outside a bar in Wigan, Greater Manchester, in the early hours of July 27, 2008.
The attack, which was captured on CCTV, was described as “violent, excessive and unjustified” by the police watchdog.
Lightfoot, 40, was filmed pushing the soldier’s head into the ground and hitting him with a police helmet.
He was found guilty of the assault on the soldier, who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq, by a jury at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court last month.
Two other officers involved in the incident, Sergeant Stephen Russell, 34, and Pc Richard Kelsall, 29, were cleared of assaulting the soldier.
L/Cpl Aspinall was himself initially charged and convicted of two counts of attacking the police officers by Wigan Magistrates, who did not view the CCTV.
He later won an appeal to have the verdict quashed at Liverpool Crown Court, where the judge cited concerns about the actions of the officers.
Haulage driver Lightfoot was also convicted of one count of perjury, in relation to the evidence he gave during the soldier’s trial.
He was jailed for one year for perjury, and two years for assault, to run consecutively.
Lightfoot, a twice-divorced father of two, had been given a warning about using excessive force during an arrest in 2007, the court heard.
However, he was nominated for a bravery award for confronting a robber who was wielding an imitation handgun and won a Special Constable of the Year award in 2003.
Police were called to the Walkabout bar in Wigan town centre after L/Cpl Aspinall was thrown out for causing trouble and allegedly shouting racial abuse at door staff.
Lightfoot used “unacceptable” force when making the arrest, Judge Lewis said, and it was lucky the soldier had not suffered a head injury.
“However badly he behaved, he did not deserve to be treated as you treated him during this short-lived bout of violence,” the judge added.
The judge rejected a claim for compensation for L/Cpl Aspinall.
Lightfoot’s father Jim said his son did nothing wrong: “I don’t think the video tells the story,” he said.
“I did 24 years as a Special Constable. I’ve been in the same position. You didn’t get a true picture from the video.”
Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan said: “The judge’s sentence is a reflection of how serious this abuse of trust was.
“The conduct of Peter Lightfoot that day fell well below the standard we expect.
“His actions in no way reflect the committed and professional attitude shown by the vast majority of our Special Constables, who are highly trained in the best ways to safely detain prisoners.”
However badly he behaved, he did not deserve to be treated as you treated him
during this short-lived bout of violence.
