Orissa: PM assures to restore communal harmony

New Delhi, Dec 31: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today assured that communal harmony would be restored in the violence-hit areas of Orissa. Dr Singh also told a group of Christian leaders, who met him, that necessary action would be taken to restore communal peace in the state.

He further said that any attempts to disturb communal peace and the secular fabric of the country would be sternly dealt with, adding that the Government would take steps to protect the religious freedom to all citizens. He assured the delegation that steps would be taken to offer appropriate compensation for damage to property. A Union Minister is likely to visit the State in this regard. Earlier today, Dr Singh talked to Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the situation in the state.
The law and order situation in Orissa's Kandhamal District has largely improved. At least three people were killed in the violence that was sparked off on December 24 when Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists led mobs burnt down churches.

Over a dozen churches and prayer houses in Khandamal District were torched by the suspected saffron activists over Christmas celebrations.

The saffron activists were reportedly agitated following an attack on VHP leader Laxamanananda Saraswati, who led an anti-conversion movement.



ANI

Share

Blogger Widgets

LA Gang F13 Accused of Targeting Blacks

LOS ANGELES (AP) - In a murderous quest aimed at "cleansing" their turf of snitches and rival gangsters, members of one of Los Angeles County's most vicious Latino gangs sometimes killed people just because of their race, an investigation found.

There were even instances in which Florencia 13 leaders ordered killings of black gangsters and then, when the intended victim couldn't be located, said "Well, shoot any black you see," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said.

"In certain cases some murders were just purely motivated on killing a black person," Baca said.

Authorities say there were 20 murders among more than 80 shootings documented during the gang's rampage in the hardscrabble Florence-Firestone neighborhood, exceptional even in an area where gang violence has been commonplace for decades. They don't specify the time frame or how many of the killings were racial.

Los Angeles has struggled with gang violence for years, especially during the wars in the late 1980s and early '90s between the Crips and the Bloods - both black gangs. Latino gangs have gained influence since then as the Hispanic population surged.

Evidence of Florencia 13, or F13, is easy to find in Florence-Firestone. Arrows spray-painted on the wall of a liquor store mark the gang's boundary and graffiti warns rivals to steer clear.

The gang's name comes from the neighborhood that is its stronghold and the 13th letter of the alphabet - M - representing the gang's ties to the Mexican Mafia.

Federal, state and local officials worked together to charge 102 men linked to F13 with racketeering, conspiracy to murder, weapons possession, drug dealing and other crimes. In terms of people charged, it's the largest-ever federal case involving a Southern California gang, prosecutors say. More than 80 of those indicted are in custody.

But eliminating the gang won't be easy. It's survived for decades and is believed to have about 2,000 members. Its reach extends to Nevada, Arizona and into prisons, where prosecutors say incarcerated gang leaders were able to order hits on black gangsters.

According to the indictment, F13's leader, Arturo Castellanos, sent word in 2004 from California's fortress-like Pelican Bay State Prison that he wanted his street soldiers to begin "cleansing" Florence-Firestone of black gangsters, notably the East Coast Crips, and snitches.

His followers eagerly obeyed, according to federal prosecutors.

In one case, F13 members came across a black man at a bus stop, shouted "Cheese toast!" and fired. "Cheese toast" is a derogatory name for East Coast Crips, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin S. Rosenberg said.

The victim, apparently targeted only because of his skin color, survived being shot several times, Rosenberg said.

F13 isn't the only Latino gang linked to racial killings. Last year, four members of The Avenues, a gang from the Highland Park area east of downtown Los Angeles, were convicted of hate crimes for killing a black man in what prosecutors called a campaign to drive blacks from that neighborhood. And last January, authorities announced a crackdown on the 204th Street gang following the killing of a 14-year-old black girl.

The violence goes both ways, said Adam Torres, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department gang detective whose beat includes Florence-Firestone.

During a recent patrol on the east side of the neighborhood, he pointed to a cinderblock wall peppered with bullet holes. Torres said the Crips still control that area and any Hispanic there is at risk of being shot.

Despite the wave of violence, George Tita, a criminologist with the University of California, Irvine, said racially motivated gang killings are an exception. Latinos and blacks are far more likely to be murdered by one of their own.

"You don't see these major black-brown wars, either within the context of gangs or outside the context of gangs," Tita said.

Residents of Florence-Firestone are loath to discuss gangs, fearful they might end up as targets, but there are signs of change. Murders in the neighborhood dropped from 43 in 2005 to 19 in 2006, Baca said. For 2007, there were 19 murders as of Dec. 24.

Jose Garcia sees the difference. The security doors on the store where he works aren't covered with graffiti as often and he hasn't heard a gunshot in two months.

"It used to be at least once or twice a week," he said.


Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
ET

Share

Blogger Widgets

Bhutto's son named as successor

Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son Bilawal has been chosen to take over her Pakistan People's Party, after her assassination on Thursday.
Bilawal, who will be a titular head while he finishes his studies at Oxford University said: "My mother always said democracy is the best revenge."

Ms Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who will run the party day-to-day, said it would contest upcoming elections.

But it is unclear whether the vote will go ahead as planned early next month.

Mr Zardari appealed to the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif - a long-time Bhutto rival - to drop his threat to boycott the polls.

Name change

Mr Zardari and his son were speaking at a news conference after a meeting of the PPP leadership in Naudero, near Larkana in southern Pakistan.

Another senior party official, vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, said Ms Bhutto had named Mr Zardari as her successor as party chairman.

But he said Mr Zardari had turned it down in favour of his son - a decision he said the party leadership had endorsed.

Mr Zardari also announced that the couple's children would now change their names and be called Bhutto Zardari.

Sitting between his father and Mr Fahim, Bilawal himself said his father would run the party while he was away at university.

"When I return, I promise to lead the party as my mother wanted me to," he said.

But Mr Zardari blocked any further reporters' questions to Bilawal, saying that although party chairman, he was still of "tender age".

"We are all in mourning," he said.

Mr Zardari also said he had refused to allow an autopsy on Ms Bhutto's body.

"I've lived here long enough to know how and where an autopsy would have been conducted," he said.

Instead, he said the party was asking the United Nations and the British government to conduct an investigation similar to the one carried out after the killing of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

And he appealed for an end to the unrest in Pakistan, which has killed at least 38 people since Ms Bhutto's killing.

New pictures

Earlier, Pakistani television released new pictures it said showed Ms Bhutto's attackers - a gunman and a suicide bomber. They also apparently showed Ms Bhutto was inside her car, and no longer standing through the sun roof, when the explosion happened.

The images added to the dispute over Ms Bhutto's death.

Interior ministry spokesman Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema said on Friday that she was killed when the force of the bomb blast knocked her head against a sun roof fitting, and was not hit by bullets.

The PPP has insisted she was killed by two bullets, one of which pierced her skull and another which hit her in the neck.

The assassination opened the question of whether elections due on 8 January would go ahead as planned.

The ruling party says they are likely to be delayed for several weeks, on the grounds that the vote would "lose credibility" if held under current conditions.

Opposition parties have been calling for a delay, amid widespread unrest and political disarray following the murder of Ms Bhutto.

Tariq Azim of the ruling PML-Q party said a delay would allow the PPP more time to re-organise.

Pakistan's election commission has called an emergency meeting for Monday, to decide whether the poll should be delayed.

But the PPP says it wants the elections to go ahead as planned - even though it is not clear who would be its leading candidates.

At 19, Bilawal is legally too young to stand for parliament.

And his father has been repeatedly accused of corruption - though he denies the charges and has never been convicted in court.

Mr Zardari said party vice-chairman Mr Fahim would probably be its candidate for prime minister.

But the BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones - reporting from Naudero - says filling the political gap left by Benazir Bhutto will be a very big challenge for her party.

Share

Blogger Widgets