BBC news 2009-05-16 加文本

BBC 2009-05-16


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BBC News with Jonathan Izzard

President Obama has announced that he will restart the military trials at Guantanamo Bay for some terrorism suspects, a judicial system he had previously denounced. He said that additional safeguards would ensure that suspects got a fairer hearing. From Washington, James Coomarasamy reports. 

After several months of consideration, President Obama has decided to modify a system that many of his supporters want to see scrapped. In a statement, the White House said he was recommending that the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay resume once Congress has approved certain changes to their rules, guaranteeing greater rights to the detainees. No longer will evidence be admissible that was obtained through cruel, inhuman or degrading forms of interrogation, there will be strict limits on hearsay evidence and more leeway for prisoners to choose their defense and if they wish, to refuse to testify. President Obama says these changes will protect the country and uphold its values but human rights groups are angry. They argue that he is simply tinkering with a system that is fatally flawed.

The United States has released a Guantanamo detainee whose landmark appeal to the Supreme Court secured inmates at the military prison the right to challenge their confinement. The man an Algerian, Lakhdar Boumediene flew to France after being freed from seven years’ custody at the Guantanamo naval base. France confirmed earlier this month that it would accept Mr. Boumediene who was cleared of wrongdoing last November. Mr. Boumediene was one of six Algerian men arrested in October 2001 in Bosnia.

Thousands of people have fled from Mingora, the main town in the Swat valley in northwest Pakistan to escape fighting between the army and the Taliban insurgents. The United Nations says almost one million people have been displaced in the region as Pakistani forces engage in three offensives against the Taliban. The military commander in North West Frontier Province General Tariq Khan said the military operations would probably be wrapped up within about a month, but the fight against the Taliban would continue in other ways.

If you’re talking about bringing a closure to cohesive, organized military operations as we’re looking at the Swat operations right now, I wouldn’t give it more than about something like a month. If you’re looking at it all told, if we continue with the resolve and the rest of the agencies as well I think by the end of the year or so we should be able to see military operations changed into policing operations.  

The American carmaker General Motors has told more than 1000 of its dealers in the United States that their contracts are being terminated. GM says it wants to cut the total number of dealers by 40% by 2010. It says this is part of a plan to save the firm from insolvency. The company’s rival Chrysler has said it would close a quarter of its dealerships in the US. The moves by GM and Chrysler mean up to 100,000 people may lose their jobs. Both companies have received billions of dollars in US government aid in an attempt to stay in business.

World News from the BBC

The head of the British Army General Sir Richard Dannatt says Britain’s experience in Iraq has damaged its reputation as a reliable ally and military partner of the United States. General Dannatt said Britain needed to make an honest self-appraisal of its performance in Iraq to restore its credibility. In a speech in London, he also called for reappraisal of what Britain’s military was for. Here is our defense correspondent Rob Watson reports.

Put crudely, the debate pits those who believe Britain and other western countries should prepare for the possibility of conflicts with other large states like China against those who believe the future will look very much like the present and that the main threats will come from violent extremism. General Sir Richard Dannatt has now come down firmly in the second camp, arguing that Britain is likely to find itself in a generational struggle against al-Qaeda and other militant Islamists rather than against other states.

The United Nations human rights chief, Navi Pillay has called for an independent investigation into the killing of civilians in the conflict in Sri Lanka. A spokesman for Mrs. Pillay said there had to be accountability for what had gone on in Sri Lanka. The comments come as the Sri Lankan army is engaged in what it contends to be a final assault on the last strip of territory controlled by the Tamil Tiger rebels on the northeastern coast. The government is accused of shelling civilian areas while the rebels are charged with holding civilians as human shields and shooting at those who are attempting to flee the conflict zone. Both sides deny the charges. 

The main rebel group in Nigeria has declared an all-out war in the Niger Delta following what it described as an aerial bombardment. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND accused the air force of attacking civilians. A Nigerian military spokesman said the operation which was continuing was aimed at releasing sailors taken hostage when two ships were hijacked earlier this week. There has been no official response to a rebel statement that one hostage was killed in crossfire.

BBC News.