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World
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2016
Peruvian ex-spy chief gets 22 years LIMA—A Peruvian court convicted the ex-heads of the country’s intelligence services and army of murdering students and burning their bodies in an oven during a crackdown against opponents in 1993. It handed a new jail sentence of 22 years on Tuesday to former spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, the right-hand man of now-jailed former president Alberto Fujimori. It handed the same sentence to the former head of the army, Nicolas Hermoza. Montesinos is considered one of the masterminds of a violent crackdown by Fujimori’s government against opponents who he alleged were linked to the Shining Path, a Marxist armed rebel group. A court found Fujimori, 78, responsible for massacres of opponents committed in the early 1990s and handed him a 25-year sentence in 2009. Montesinos, 71, and Hermoza, 81, are also already in jail for killings by death squads and other convictions. The court on Tuesday found the two responsible for the forced disappearances of students Martin Roca Casas and Kenneth Anzualdo and the teacher Justiniano Najarro, all from Callao Technical University. The court heard that the three were killed and their bodies burned in an oven in the basement of the army intelligence service in Lima. It also sentenced former army intelligence chief Jorge Nadal in absentia to 15 years and ordered his capture. AFP
HONORS. Members of the Israeli Knesset guard carry the coffin of former Israeli president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres at the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem on Thursday. Peres died on Wednesday two weeks after suffering a major stroke. AFP
Obama, Bill Clinton attend Peres funeral
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ASHINGTON—US President Barack Obama will join other world leaders in attending the funeral of Israeli ex-president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, the White House said Wednesday. Obama, who ordered US flags at half-staff late Wednesday, “will lead the US delegation to Jerusalem to participate in the funeral,” the White House said. He is to depart for Israel Thursday and return after the ceremony on Friday. Meanwhile, protesters marched on Wednesday in a California
town following the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man said to be mentally ill, as local officials urged calm and pledged a full investigation. The victim, identified as Ugandan refugee Alfred Olango, 30, was shot on Tuesday in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon after police received an emergency call
about a man behaving erratically and walking in traffic. Former US president Bill Clinton will also attend Peres’ funeral, but will not be joined by wife Hillary as she campaigns in the final stretch of the White House race, her team said Wednesday. Clinton, who oversaw the signing of the Oslo Accords that envisioned an independent Palestinian state, paid tribute upon news of Peres’ death to “a fervent advocate for peace and reconciliation and for a future where all the children of Abraham build a better tomorrow.” But while grief was widespread for Israelis, among Palestinians re-
sponses tended to be diametrically opposed after decades of hostility between them. On the streets of major Palestinian cities, people labeled Peres a “war criminal” and accused him of “massacres.” Obama led tributes to the elder statesman as a friend who refused to give up on the dream of peace. Peres’ commitment to Israel’s security and pursuit of peace was “rooted in his own unshakable moral foundation and unflagging optimism” the US leader said in a statement. Obama is to join world leaders including French President Francois Hollande and German Presi-
dent Joachim Gauck as well as Britain’s Prince Charles in attending Peres’ Friday funeral at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, where many Israeli dignitaries are buried. Flags at the White House, on all public buildings and grounds, and at US buildings overseas will be flown at half-staff through sunset Friday “as a mark of respect for the memory of Shimon Peres,” the White House said in a statement. Peres, who was 93, held nearly every major office in the country, serving twice as prime minister and also as president, a mostly ceremonial role, from 2007 to 2014. AFP
Hillary, Sanders seek youth vote DURHAM—What they lack in chemistry they make up for in drive: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are determined to stand united for the sake of defeating Donald Trump. On Wednesday, the former Democratic primary rivals teamed up in a bid to charm America’s youth, as recent polls showed Clinton’s lead slip dramatically among voters aged 18-34. They are a demographic that proved key to both of US President Barack Obama’s presidential wins. Meanwhile, It’s 10 days to America’s next presidential debate, but some of Trump’s most ardent admirers agree: he must do better -- focus more on policy, and hit Clinton harder. Most mainstream political analysts gave Democrat Clinton, the 68-year-old former first lady, senator and secre-
tary of state the upper hand in this week’s television clash watched by 84 million. Clinton is hoping that millennial whisperer Sanders can up her street cred among young voters -- a tall order the selfdescribed democratic socialist from Vermont has taken on. “Is everybody here ready to transform America?” asked Sanders at a University of New Hampshire rally amid heavy applause. Sanders won legions of young followers in his bitter primary battle against Clinton, who he ultimately endorsed to the disdain of some of his most ardent supporters. “This election is enormously important for the future of our country,” the 75-year-old told the rally. “It is imperative that we elect Hillary Clinton as our next president.” But while millennial flocked to Sanders as he
pledged to fight income inequality and provide free state university education, Clinton has struggled to appeal among young voters even after ousting her primary opponent. The latest Quinnipiac poll showed Clinton at just 31 percent among the key demographic, a razor-thin lead over Republican Trump’s 26 percent. Third-party Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson jumped from 16 percent in August to 29 percent in September -- prompting handwringing among the Democrats less than six weeks before the November 8 vote. After warmly embracing Sanders in New Hampshire, Clinton said she was “proud of the primary campaign Bernie and I ran, based on issues not insults.” “Bernie and I are excited about what we can do together.” AFP
Danes use hair spray vs migrants COPENHAGEN—A Danish far-right group faced criticism on Wednesday after courting criticism by handing out “asylum spray” to be used against violent migrants. In the southern town of Haderslev, 137 cans of relabeled hair spray were given away to the public on Saturday by the far-right Party of the Danes, which does not hold any seats in parliament. “The asylum spray is a concrete reaction against more Danes feeling insecure,” party leader Daniel Carlsen, a former member of a Nazi group that he now distances himself from, told Agence France Presse. “Some Danish girls don’t dare to go outside after it gets dark, partly because there are now asylum seekers in town,”
he added. The spray was described as “effective” and “legal” -- in a nod to Denmark’s ban on pepper spray. In the long run the problem could only be solved by “stopping non-western immigration and beginning comprehensive repatriation,” Carlsen said. The United Nation’s refugee agency, UNHCR, said it “strongly regrets that this kind of incident is taking place in Denmark against asylum seekers and refugees, people who already have suffered so much.” “It is a small group that is involved in this incident and only represents a very small fraction of the Danish people,” it added in a statement. A lawmaker for the opposition Danish Social Liberal
Party, Zenia Stampe, said she would ask the government “what legal options we have to stop the spread of vigilantism.” In a post on Facebook, she suggested that politicians would have reacted more strongly if other minority groups, such as Jewish or gay people, had been targeted in a similar stunt. Around 22,000 people live in Haderslev, where a migrant center currently houses around 140 asylum seekers, according to the Danish Red Cross. Europe has faced its biggest migration crisis since World War II with well over one million refugees and migrants arriving on its shores in the past year as they flee war in Syria and the Middle East, and poverty in Africa. AFP