Monday Stuff

A lot of things to talk about...



Who would have thought that dirty tricks were not beneath the Liberals?

Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae has apologized for the Liberal staffer who was behind the Twitter account that posted private details of Minister Vic Toews’ life online.

It was never about a vague connection to a crime. It was idiocy, paranoia and the state's persistent need to show everybody who wears the pants around here.


 (thumbs up)



When grovelling, try to look vaguely mannish about it:

The White House press secretary told members of the press pool aboard Air Force One today that President Obama’s “sincere” apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for a Koran-burning incident “is not appropriate to show” to reporters.

Jay Carney spoke with reporters for about 20 minutes as the presidential entourage flew to Florida for a speech on energy at the University of Miami.

Obama’s letter to Karzai that included the apology was “a lengthy, three-page letter on a host of issues, several sentences of which relate to this matter,” according to the travel pool report.

“The president, following up on a telephone conversation … wrote a long letter on a variety of issues related to our bilateral engagement, including reconciliation, including the trilateral talks that we had with Pakistan last week in Islamabad,” Carney said. “He also expressed his apology for the inadvertent burning of religious materials by American personnel in Afghanistan. It is wholly appropriate given the understandable sensitivities to this issue. His primary concern as commander in chief is the safety of American men and women in Afghanistan, of our military and civilian personnel there. It’s absolutely the right thing to do.”

Carney said Karzai did not request the apology letter. Obama spoke with Karzai the day before sending the letter.

 

Not working.


(With thanks)



South Korea needs to stand up to China and we need to stop trading with them:

South Korean legislators on Friday condemned China's repatriation of fugitives from North Korea after Beijing reportedly sent nine back despite pleas from Seoul.

A resolution passed by the committee on foreign affairs and unification urges China to follow international rules in handling North Koreans who flee their impoverished homeland, and seeks outside help to halt the returns.

The resolution, adopted at a meeting attended by Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan, followed reports by Yonhap news agency and newspapers that nine North Koreans were sent back last weekend.

Activists who have been demonstrating in Seoul say the fugitives face severe punishment, even a possible death sentence, if forced to return home.

President Lee Myung-Bak said Wednesday the North Koreans should be treated in line with international rules.

The South's foreign ministry has urged China to change its policy of treating North Koreans as economic migrants, and to give them refugee status.

The ministry declined to confirm last weekend's reported repatriations but said it would raise the issue for the first time at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next week.

Seoul, however, will not mention China by name because of fears this could backfire, Chosun Ilbo newspaper said.

"We don't want to put defectors in a bind by creating diplomatic discord with Beijing," an unnamed foreign ministry official was quoted as saying.

North Korea's official website blasted the South for trying to internationalise the issue, saying repatriations are the "rightful activity of sovereign nations".

"Recently South Korean authorities have been frantic in their commotion over 'refugees' in a reckless attempt to internationalise the issue of repatriating them," the Uriminzokkiri website said Friday.

"Nobody can say this or that about the rightful activity of sovereign nations when they take administrative actions on problems on their border in line with domestic laws and relevant treaties."

About 30 North Korean refugees have reportedly been caught by Chinese authorities this month and are awaiting repatriation, as their relatives or other supporters in the South campaign to save them.

"My brother in North Korea called me, and said that my female cousin who crossed into China in late February was caught and sent back to North Korea," a North Korean refugee in the South told Yonhap Thursday.

She said eight others were also repatriated.

A Seoul group called North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said it could confirm that China had recently repatriated three North Koreans, although there might have been more.

***

Hundreds of North Korean defectors were awaiting repatriation as of last Friday after being arrested in various parts of China, rights activists say.

"Some 220 defectors have been interrogated by regional security departments in China and are being held at about 10 detention centers near the North Korea-China border," said Kim Hoe-tae of Solidarity for North Korean Human Rights. "They'll be sent back to the North one by one."

Other defector groups and activists say there are even more, counting those who are still on the way to detention centers after their arrests, bringing the total to anywhere between 300 and 400.

According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China sent between 4,800 and 8,900 defectors back to the North every year between 1998 and 2006, Kim added.

Former unification deputy minister Kim Suk-woo agreed. "China has repatriated about 5,000 defectors to the North every year under an agreement on the extradition of fugitives and criminals it concluded with the North in the 1960s," he said.

Different groups give different estimates on the number of defectors who have been arrested in Shenyang, Yanji, and Changchun this month, ranging from 24 to 40. "We're certain of the number of defectors arrested in China for whom we've worked through our brokers," a member of a defector group said. "But it's hard for us to find out the total number."

But most activists believe the numbers reported in the press are just the tip of the iceberg.

We don't need their cheap products and their penchant for being evil.


(thanks)