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news without borders
Kidnapper recruits victims
in Indonesia presidential tilt
JAKARTA: A former Indonesian
general running for the country’s
presidency has gone to unusual
lengths to shake a bloody reputation
for human rights abuse, by recruit-
ing activists he kidnapped 11 years
ago.
Prabowo Subianto, the former
head of the country’s notorious
Kopassus special forces, is hoping
the three activists will be his secret
weapon as he leads his Gerindra
Party into legislative elections next
month.
The activists were plucked from
the streets in the dying days of the
Suharto military dictatorship in 1998,
interrogated and – for the most part
– tortured by Prabowo’s men.
“I’ll work with anyone, be they
Prabowo or Satan, so long as they
have the same political principles as
me and my friends,” said Haryanto
Taslam, who was once jailed by
Prabowo’s men and now heads
Gerindra’s media centre.
“He’s admitted his mistakes and
apologised to me, so I think what
can I make a fuss about,” asked
Taslam, a former legislator for the
Democratic Party of Struggle of ex-
president Megawati Sukarnoputri,
who is also making a comeback bid
for president.
Such backing is music to
Prabowo’s ears. The ex-general, who
was once married to a daughter of
Suharto and considered by some
heir apparent to the strongman,
stands accused of a string of rights
abuses.
He has denied accusations that
he organised terror squads in East
Timor during Indonesia’s bloody
24-year occupation and that he
orchestrated riots and mass rapes
of ethnic Chinese women in Jakarta
prior to Suharto’s fall. – AFP
Deadly Australia airport
brawl prompts crackdown
CANBERRA: Australian authori-
ties promised a crackdown on
gang violence yesterday after a
Terence man was beaten to death in front
of passengers at the country’s
Fernandez: biggest airport during a melee
RM2bln between rival motorcycle gangs.
and Four men were charged with
affray after the brawl on Sunday.
counting Terrified travellers said a man
pg 12 was bludgeoned to death by up to
15 men wielding metal bollards
used to separate passengers in
the Sydney airport flight check-
theSun
in area. Most of the men then
fled in taxis.
“I’m sickened at the violence
that occurred. I want to make
sure that the police force has
everything they need to fight this
sort of violent crime,” New South
Wales state Premier Nathan Rees
told state radio after the brawl.
Police and media reports said
the brawl appeared to be be-
tween the Hell’s Angels and the
Comancheros, fighting for con-
trol of the illegal drugs trade.
While members of the public
criticised security and police
at the airport for being slow to
react, four men were later ar-
rested. They were to appear in
Sydney’s Central Local Court
later on Monday, a police state-
ment said.
Australian Federal Police
Commissioner Mick Keelty said
security measures at the airport
were acceptable.
A photo of some of 80
dolphins and whales stranded
at Hamelin Bay, on Western
Australia’s south coast,
yesterday
Struggle to save beached
whales in Australia
PERTH: Volunteers yesterday joined
rescue workers struggling to save
the lives of dozens of whales and
dolphins stranded on a beach on
Australia’s west coast, officials
said.
Around 80 false killer whales
and bottlenose dolphins were
found beached over more than
5km in Hamelin Bay, south of the
city of Perth.
“The mass stranding occurred
early this morning and of the 80
found stranded only 25 false killer
whales have been found alive,” the
Department of Environment and
Conservation said in a statement.
Staff and volunteers were work-
ing to stabilise the survivors while
awaiting equipment to help return
them to the sea, spokesman Greg
Mair said.
“Our main priority is to ensure
the welfare of the remaining alive
whales before we herd them back
out to sea,” he said.
“When we will be assisting them
back to sea depends on ocean
conditions and the strength of the
animals, at present ocean condi-
| TUESDAY MARCH 24 2009
Rees said his state would look
at a ban on motorcycle gangs,
modelled on laws in South
Australia, where bike gangs
have been blamed for murder,
drug trafficking, prostitution and
weapons smuggling.
A 2006 Australian Crime
Commission report found there
were 35 outlaw motorcycle
gangs in Australia, with 3,500
members.
Police have blamed club
defections for escalating
violence including drive-by
shootings at Sydney nightclubs,
the firebombing of one gang’s
clubhouse, and shots fired into
the tattoo shop of the Nomads
national president.
In South Australia, police
have been empowered to
dismantle gang headquarters
and force members to account
for any unexplained wealth or
income. – Reuters
tions are quite dangerous with
rough seas and large waves.”
False killer whales are medium-
sized whales with long, slender
bodies and narrow, tapered heads
with rounded snouts.
It is not uncommon for them to
strand, the department said, with
mass beachings of the species
occurring in Western Australia four
times in the last two decades.
The latest beaching takes the
total number of whales stranded
around southern Australia and
Tasmania in the past four months
to more than 400.
Earlier this month rescuers
saved 54 pilot whales after nearly
200 of the giant creatures beached
themselves on King Island off Aus-
tralia’s southern coast.
In November, more than 150
pilot whales died after beaching
themselves on Tasmania’s remote
west coast and in January, 48
sperm whales died on a sandbar
at the north of the island. The phe-
nomenon of whale strandings and
the causes remain the subject of
scientific debate. – AFP