Ban Ki-Moon calls for release of Belarus journalists

11 Jan 11 | Index Index, minipost, News and features

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has expressed concern for political prisoners being held in Belarus in the aftermath of December’s presidential elections.

A UN spokesman told reporters: “[Ban is] concerned about the continued detention of journalists, opposition candidates and their supporters and calls for their release and the full observance of human rights and due process.”

Mr Ban also criticised Belarus’s closure of the Minsk office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)

Neil Clark

10 Jan 11 | Uncategorized

Index has been contacted by journalist Neil Clark, who points out that he never called for Iraqi translators to be shot, as I may have suggested in a previous blog post.

The article I was referring to (“Keep These Quislings Out“, Comment is Free, 10 August 2007), dealt with calls at the time for asylum to be granted to Iraqis who found themselves under threat from militia after working as translators for the British Army. Clark commented in that piece:

“History tells us that down through history, Quislings have — surprise, surprise — not been well received, and the Iraqi people’s animosity towards those who collaborated with US and British forces is only to be expected.”

He went on:

“There is a simple answer to that “practical military issue”: let’s do all we can to keep the British army out of war zones. And in the meantime, let’s do all we can to keep self-centred mercenaries who betrayed their fellow countrymen and women for financial gain out of Britain.

If that means some of them may lose their lives, then the responsibility lies with those who planned and supported this wicked, deceitful and catastrophic war, and not those of us who tried all we could to stop it.”