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Lapland park closes after angry parents demanded refunds

Guardian Unlimited

- 17 hours and 19 minutes ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/83664?ns=guardianpageName=Life+and+style%3A+Lapland+park+closes+after+angry+parents+demanded+refundsch=Life+and+stylec3=The+Guardianc4=Christmas+%28Life+and+style%29%2CChristmas+and+New+Year+%28Travel%29%2CLife+and+style%2CTravel%2CUK+news%2CConsumer+affairs+%28Money%29%2CMoneyc5=Personal+Finance%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CChristmasc6=Paul+Lewisc7=2008_12_05c8=1129121c9=articlec10=GUc11=Life+and+stylec12=Christmasc13=c14=h2=GU%2FLife+and+style%2FChristmas" width="1" height="1" //divpA Lapland theme park that sparked outrage from parents who complained that it looked nothing like the arctic home of Father Christmas has been closed, police said yesterday./ppTrading standards received more than 2,000 complaints about Lapland New Forest, which promised to make "Christmas dreams come true for children of all ages". Parents had scheduled a protest tomorrow at Matchams Leisure Park, near Ringwood, Dorset, the site of the "mini Lapland", to demand their money back. /ppVisitors dubbed the park a "glorified car boot sale" after they said the ice rink was broken, log cabins resembled BQ sheds, huskies were found chained to the ground and "going berserk", and a "tunnel of light" turned out to be a line of trees with a few strings of fairy lights. /ppThe "bustling Christmas market" resembled a white marquee with four small stalls and a few piles of boxes, parents said. /ppTwo elves and a Father Christmas were reportedly attacked by furious parents, who had spent up to pound;100 for entry for a family of four, and then spent hours waiting in queues. Tickets cost pound;30 for individuals, pound;25 for each person for families of four or more, and pound;10 for children under two years old. /ppThey were also charged extra for food, fairground rides and even a photograph with Father Christmas. One child allegedly found him smoking a cigarette behind the grotto./ppA spokesman for Dorset police said: "We have been told that the Lapland New Forest attraction has this morning been closed permanently and that contractors and stall holders are leaving the site."/ppThe spokesman added that police were called yesterday morning over fears there would be a breach of the peace because some contractors had alleged they had not been paid. He said no one was arrested and police did not close the site. /ppSeveral networking website pages have sprung up to lambast the Dorset Lapland, which is not connected to another themed-Lapland in Kent. Facebook groups include photographs of the muddy site, a bare-looking grotto and distraught children. "The so-called gorgeous huskies were going berserk chained up!" wrote one contributor./pp"The face painting consisted of a red nose and black lines for whiskers, the girl doing it said she had never done face painting before," said another. "Hardly anything that was advertised was there ... I knew it was bad when even the catering staff were moaning."/ppThe Lapland website has appeared inactive most of the week, and the organisers have declined to speak to the press. /ppHowever, speaking before the site was closed, Henry Mears, the advertising manager, blamed the complaints on a small number of troublemakers and said the ice rink had been fixed. "Like all people they like to get into queues and just generate a bit of aggravation," he said./ppHe recently added: "Everything that could go wrong did go wrong at the weekend. The weather wasn't in our favour. But on the advice of our solicitors we will not be talking to any press. It is disgusting and scandalous what they have done as it is stopping other people from enjoying themselves." /ppFew visitors have been to the attraction in recent days, after irate parents vented their fury on national television. Yesterday the entrance was coned off with a "closed" sign in place./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/christmas"Christmas/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/christmasnewyear"Christmas and New Year/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/consumeraffairs"Consumer affairs/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9oCyOOw_XU8MEHW0PiuILo4ur7E/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9oCyOOw_XU8MEHW0PiuILo4ur7E/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

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Man blamed for Darfur crisis says 'I am at peace with myself'

Guardian Unlimited

- 1 days and 17 hours ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/35029?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Man+blamed+for+Darfur+says+I+am+at+peace+with+myselfch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Sudan+%28News%29%2CHuman+rights+%28News%29%2CWar+crimes+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Simon+Tisdallc7=2008_12_04c8=1128339c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Sudanc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FSudan" width="1" height="1" //divpThe man accused by the international criminal court of planning, organising and directing an orgy of violence against civilians in Darfur that left up to 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million homeless has angrily protested his innocence, calling the allegations part of a political plot by the western powers to recolonise Sudan./ppIn an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Ahmad Muhammad Harun, Sudan's minister of state for humanitarian affairs, said he defied the ICC and the international community to do their worst and vowed never to give himself up to the tribunal./ppHarun claimed the evidence against him was concocted and unreliable. And he described the court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, as a disgrace to the legal profession who should be sacked. "My conscience is clear. I have no regrets," Harun said. "What I have done was legal, it was my responsibility, it was my duty. I am content. I am at peace with myself."/ppThe ICC has charged Harun, in his former capacity as Sudan's minister of state for the interior, with 42 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Darfur in the period from August 2003 to March 2004./ppThe eight-month period witnessed a peak in fighting between rebel and pro-government forces. The large-scale civilian casualties, gross human rights abuses and mass displacement later caused the US government to accuse Sudan's political leadership of genocide and led to UN and EU sanctions against Sudan./ppThe Darfur carnage caused international outrage that has yet to abate as the violence there continues, albeit at a reduced level. Numerous efforts to forge a lasting peace agreement during the past five years have foundered while hundreds of thousands of people remain in refugee camps. Meanwhile, human rights and advocacy groups have added their voices to calls for Harun and other alleged war criminals on both sides to be prosecuted./ppBut Sudan is not a party to the ICC. It has so far ignored UN security council demands that it cooperate with the court and surrender Harun and his co-accused, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, an alleged Janjaweed leader also known as Ali Kushayb. /ppICC judges are currently considering a request by Moreno-Ocampo for an arrest warrant for Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity also relating to events in Darfur./ppSpeaking in his ministry's smart new offices in Khartoum, Harun said the ICC was in effect conducting a political vendetta against Sudan that had little or nothing to do with justice. /ppstrongRelaxed and confident/strong/ppThroughout the interview, Harun, a tall 43-year-old dressed in a smart charcoal suit and open-necked shirt, appeared mostly relaxed and confident. Occasionally his eyes flashed with anger as he discussed the accusations against him./pp"We believe the ICC has digressed from its main objective and become part of the international political conflict. It is another phase of international colonisation. It targets mainly the Africans. It reminds us of the 19th century when the white people were dominating here in Africa./pp"The main aim of the white people in Africa at that time, the British and the Europeans, was to disseminate their culture and their traditions. Under the flag of attractive slogans, so many things happened. Now there is a new imperial era but this time it is led by the United States and supported by the Europeans."/ppHarun, a trained lawyer from the Bargo tribe in western Sudan and a former judge, argued that UN security council resolution 1593 that referred Darfur to the ICC in 2005 was discriminatory because it exempted citizens of the US, which like Sudan is not a party to the ICC's founding treaty, from action by the court. For this reason, the ICC prosecutor was ignoring the "first principle" of equality before the law./pp"This is a discriminatory prosecution. It is also discriminatory because the ICC is targeting only African countries," Harun said. "Also, any serious investigation should begin on the ground, in theatre, in Darfur. And witnesses who are part of the problem should not be taken into consideration. They are not reliable sources."/ppSuggesting the ICC investigation was superfluous as well as politically motivated, Harun said a national investigation committee created by Bashir had examined many senior officials over their roles in Darfur. "I was one of them. I gave answers to all their questions. No action was taken. There was no evidence, so there was no reason to take action."/ppHarun added that any future move to indict Bashir, or any backroom deal in which he himself might be handed over to the ICC in return for Bashir being granted immunity, would only prove his contention that the ICC proceedings were political. In such circumstances, he said, he would never voluntarily surrender himself. And nor was he prepared to meet Moreno-Ocampo if the latter came to Khartoum./pp"The prosecutor has brought his profession into disrespect. He is not welcome in Sudan ... He should be replaced. This is what we are requesting. I add my voice to the voices of the international society because he is insulting the profession of justice and insulting African countries."/ppAsked to explain his actions in Darfur in 2003-4, Harun said he had faced an internal, essentially local conflict between Darfurian tribes that quickly transformed into a political conflict with encouragement from forces outside the province./ppRebel leaders Minni Minnawi, Abd al-Wahid Muhammad Nur, and Abdallah Abbakar initially called themselves the Darfur Liberation Movement, he said. But this later became the Sudan Liberation Movement as external actors got involved./ppThe Darfur rebellion, also fuelled by Khalil Ibrahim's opposition-backed Justice and Equality Movement, threatened the stability of the Sudanese state as a whole, for example by undermining the 2005 North-South comprehensive peace agreement which was then nearing fruition, Harun said. The government had no choice but to act./pp"The policy and tactics of the government, like any other government when things like this are happening, is to begin by mobilising./pp"We have a security reserve force - the Popular Defence Forces - to respond to those attacks, a paramilitary force. Some people call the PDF by different names, some call it militia, others are calling it Janjaweed. But it is a formal force and it works under the directions of the army."/ppUnable to match pro-government forces militarily, the rebels changed tactics and created a humanitarian crisis in Darfur to attract international attention and intervention, he said./ppstrongRebels blamed/strong/pp"They started putting pressure on civilians to move out of villages, they killed their children, women they abducted, they destroyed the infrastructure and means of people's livelihood, and caused the mass migration of people into refugee camps."/ppIn other words, he suggested, it was the rebel groups that were responsible for the civilian massacres, atrocities and mass displacements in 2003-4, not himself or the government. Sudan's government in any case disputes the UN's casualty estimates, claiming only about 10,000 people died./ppReports that he boasted in a 2003 speech that he had "the power and the authority to kill or forgive whoever in Darfur" were fabricated, Harun added. And he insisted his 2004 description of the rebels as "fish" who needed the "water" of the villages to survive (thereby allegedly justifying the destruction of villages) was a distortion of his meaning./ppPeople in Darfur knew the truth, he said, which was why he was still welcome there. "I move freely in Darfur. I have strong support. I am popular in Darfur because they know who protected them."/ppLeaning back in a well-padded armchair with a broad smile on his face, Harun said he was a religious man who had done nothing to offend against God. But he did not claim to have a close relationship with the Almighty./pp"I am not like George Bush. I do not talk to God. In Islam, we believe Muhammad was the last prophet. Since Muhammad, no one can talk to God."/ppAs for the future, he suggested relations between Sudan and the international community would deteriorate further if the ICC persisted with its present course. A total breach with the UN was not out of the question./ppHarun's openly defiant stance underlines how difficult it may be to bring justice to Darfur while avoiding an open confrontation with Sudan and, at one remove, its African Union and Arab League allies. If allowed to continue unanswered, it also threatens the credibility of the ICC./pp"We don't expect anything good from the ICC. But for every action, there will be a response," Harun said. "The ICC will do whatever they want. We will wait and see what they do. We will defend our country as best we can to the best of our ability, according to our opinions."/ph2Backstory/h2pThe stronginternational criminal court/strong was established in strong2002/strong as an independent tribunal to try individuals responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It was designed to complement national legal systems, stepping in when a country appeared unable or unwilling to prosecute. More than 100 countries are members./ppAtrocities committed by rebel commanders in the strongDemocratic Republic of the Congo/strong and by the Lord's Resistance Army in strongUganda/strong prompted the opening of the first cases in 2004. Investigations into abuses in Sudan's strongDarfur/strong region began a year later. /ppIn February 2007, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced that Sudanese minister strongAhmad Harun/strong and Janjaweed militia leader strongAli Kushayb/strong were suspected of committing crimes against humanity. The indictment and warrant for their arrests, dated April 2007, specifically accuses Harun of targeting the ethnic African Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit tribes by employing elements of the Sudanese armed forces and Popular Defence Forces paramilitaries, and by "recruiting, arming and funding" irregular Arab militias known as strongJanjaweed/strong/ppAccording to the court, pro-government forces over which Harun exercised command launched a campaign of terror that included "murders of civilians, rapes and outrages upon the personal dignity of women and girls ... and destruction of property and pillaging of towns"./ppThe indictment claims that the campaign was of a "strongsystematic/strong strongand/strong strongwidespread/strong strongnature/strong" conducted "over an extensive period of time... in furtherance of a state or organisational policy consisting in attacking the civilian population"./ppIt goes on: "Ahmad Harun intentionally contributed to the commission of the above-mentioned crimes ... In his public speeches, Harun not only demonstrated he knew the militia/Janjaweed were attacking civilians and pillaging towns and villages but also personally encouraged the commission of such illegal acts."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/sudan"Sudan/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/humanrights"Human rights/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/warcrimes"War crimes/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/99ZPD_i__SILc-p8fgs1R8yAN7A/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/99ZPD_i__SILc-p8fgs1R8yAN7A/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

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Speaker Michael Martin's allegations set constitutional crisis rolling

Guardian Unlimited

- 1 days and 17 hours ago

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/14725?ns=guardianpageName=Politics%3A+Speaker%27s+allegations+set+constitutional+crisis+rollingch=Politicsc3=The+Guardianc4=Michael+Martin%2CDamian+Green%2CConservatives%2CPolice+%28politics%29%2CPolitics%2CUK+newsc5=Policy+Society%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CUnclassifed+Contributorsc6=Nicholas+Wattc7=2008_12_04c8=1128407c9=articlec10=GUc11=Politicsc12=Michael+Martinc13=c14=h2=GU%2FPolitics%2FMichael+Martin" width="1" height="1" //divpA constitutional crisis was sparked yesterday when Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, all but accused the Metropolitan police of breaking the law by failing to follow proper procedures before searching the parliamentary office of Damian Green MP./ppAmid growing cross-party criticism of his handling of the affair, the Speaker took the unprecedented step in modern times of censuring the police. In a nine-minute statement he expressed his "regret" at their failure to produce a search warrant - and their failure to explain to the Commons authorities that the officials were entitled to demand such a warrant before allowing the search to take place./ppThere were signs last night that the Speaker's statement had failed to stabilise his position as the government refused to offer him support and the Tories said he was "severely damaged"./ppAsked repeatedly on BBC2's Newsnight whether she had confidence in the Speaker, the Commons leader Harriet Harman said: "Well I'm not saying I've got full confidence in anything or anybody."/ppHarman's intervention capped a dramatic day at Westminster. There were gasps when the Speaker said the police may have breached the law when they searched the parliamentary office of Green after simply persuading Jill Pay, the serjeant at arms, to sign a "consent form". Green, who is suspected by police of encouraging a junior Home Office official to leak a series of embarrassing documents, was arrested last Thursday and detained for nine hours./ppTo cries of protest, Martin told MPs: "I was not told that the police did not have a warrant. I have been told that the police did not explain, as they are required to do, that the serjeant was not obliged to consent or that a warrant could have been insisted on."/ppSir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, said last night the police had failed to follow proper procedures. "They should convey to the individual that consent can be withheld. It doesn't appear to be the case that they did that," he said./ppThe statement by the Speaker set the scene for noisy parliamentary exchanges and prompted demands for police to be summoned to the Commons to explain their actions. The Speaker responded to these concerns with three commitments: that the police will never be allowed to search the Commons again without a warrant and his personal approval; that a Commons debate would be held on Monday; and that he would appoint a seven-strong committee, composed of senior MPs, to review the police action./ppHarman said she may push for even tougher restrictions. She told Radio 4 that MPs might be put "on the same footing as judges, which is not just a magistrate's warrant but perhaps a warrant granted only by a high court judge"./ppHer comments came after the Tories attempted to turn the pressure on to Gordon Brown, and Green used the occasion to defend his actions. "An MP endangering national security would be a disgrace," he said. "An MP exposing embarrassing facts about Home Office policy which ministers are hiding is doing a job in the public interest."/ppDavid Cameron, the Tory leader, offered support. "Parliament is here to call the government to account, to question, to challenge and to publish information that is in the public interest," he said./ppBoris Johnson, the London mayor, said he had a "hunch" Green would not be charged. Speaking as chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, he admitted speaking to Green after his arrest and said he had yet to be convinced police did not act "disproportionately", adding that he knew the arrest would cause "huge political convulsions"./ppJacqui Smith, the home secretary, who has faced Tory accusations that she is presiding over a police state, will attempt to wrest control of the agenda today when she makes a statement to MPs on the incident./ppShe will outline a two-pronged approach: an acknowledgment that serious questions were raised by the search, but also attack on the Tories for encouraging an official to leak documents./ppThis approach was outlined by Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, who said the anger of many Tory MPs was a "smokescreen" to hide their party's role in colluding in law-breaking. Mandelson told the Today programme: "The separate and equally important issue is the apparent relationship between the opposition and a Home Office official who, in an attempt to pursue his political ambitions in the Conservative party, allegedly systematically passed sensitive and classified Home Office papers to the Conservative party."/ppConservative frontbenchers conceded last night that Cameron was "skating on thin ice" in this area after former home secretary John Reid mocked him for endorsing the leaks. "He is announcing in advance that [as prime minister] he will be perfectly happy that any civil servant on their own judgment can release any information and he will support that in terms of publishing that," Reid said./ppThe prime minister made clear Smith would stand by her insistence that it would be wrong to question a police operation. He said: "You cannot pick and choose whether you support the operational independence of the police."/ppMPs believe the Speaker has bought himself some time but he has been damaged by his failure to ask more searching questions and his attempt to blame Pay./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/michaelmartin"Michael Martin/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/damian-green"Damian Green/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/conservatives"Conservatives/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/police"Police/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-cRrflvZkNrLvEkyO2vlKJlHUDg/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/-cRrflvZkNrLvEkyO2vlKJlHUDg/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

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