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ennis Rodman's North Korea trip trivialises the horrors in the country - Telegraph.co.uk

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 07:37 AM PST

"But I'm just telling them, you know, don't be afraid man, it's all love, it's all love here."

Paddy Power, which is advertising the contest with the catchline "Hoops, not nukes", is spinning a line that sport can "rise above the news agenda and current affairs".

Just look, said Rory Scott, the company's spokesman, at how ping pong helped break the detente between China and the United States, how Nelson Mandela united South Africa for the 1995 Rugby World cup and how British and German troops laid down their weapons for a game of football on Christmas Day during the First World War.

He did not mention the Nazi Olympics in 1936.

More appropriately, he also compared the "Bang in Pyongyang", as he hopes the game will be known, with the Rumble in the Jungle between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire in 1975, paid for by President Mobutu, "The Helmsman, the Redeemer, the Father of the Revolution and the Perpetual Defender of Property and People".

Mobutu, according to Norman Mailer's account, rounded up 300 of the worst criminals he could find ahead of the fight, imprisoned them in cells underneath the stadium and executed 50 of them in order to scare everyone into good behaviour for the bout.

Dictators love to use sport for propaganda, and in this instance, it has proven an excellent publicity vehicle for Paddy Power, Koryo Tours (which has sold out its near £5,500 tour package to see the match, at quadruple the price of a regular tour), and for Mr Rodman himself. It has also helped newspapers generate a wave of clicks on the internet, as they scramble to hype up the trip and win money from advertising.

Kim Jong-un may win some popular support at home, though I do not think he has much to gain, in terms of improving his international image, by associating with Mr Rodman.

All of which seems to me to be reasonable, if distasteful in a country where a bloodthirsty regime executes people at whim and keeps 80 per cent of its population underfed. As Paddy Power points out, there are certainly precedents.

But what is frustrating is how the spectacle has again trivialised the ongoing horrors in North Korea, bending the narrative towards comedy once more.

It is not right for Mr Rodman to declare that a country whose labour camps are expanding and where the majority of children are desperately undernourished is "all love".

We belittle and laugh at the Kim family, and see the regime as eccentric and ridiculous rather than as a six-decade-long nightmare, to absolve ourselves of having to think seriously about a solution.

Shin Donghyuk, who was born into a North Korean labour camp and who saw his mother, brother and indeed his six-year-old classmate killed in front of him, has made the most sense this week.

Writing an open letter to Mr Rodman, he said: "It is your right to drink fancy wines and enjoy yourself in luxurious parties, as you reportedly did in your previous trips to Pyongyang. But as you have a fun time with the dictator, please try to think about what he and his family have done and continue to do.

"I want Kim Jong Un to hear the cries of his people. Maybe you could use your friendship and your time together to help him understand that he has the power to close the camps and rebuild the country's economy so everyone can afford to eat."

Freed Abruptly by Putin, Tycoon Arrives in Germany - New York Times

Posted: 20 Dec 2013 08:18 AM PST

By STEVEN LEE MYERS and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: December 20, 2013

MOSCOW — After 10 years in jail, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, the former chairman of Yukos Oil and once Russia's richest man, walked free from a prison colony in northern Russia on Friday and flew to Berlin on a private jet, the German Foreign Ministry confirmed.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia signed a decree pardoning the former oil tycoon early Friday, citing "humanitarian principles" and bringing Mr. Khodorkovsky's criminal odyssey to an abrupt and unexpected end.

It came less than 24 hours after Mr. Putin, following his marathon annual news conference on Thursday, made the surprise announcement that clemency was imminent for Mr. Khodorkovsky, a one-time rival.

In a statement posted on his website, Mr. Khodorkovsky said that he had requested a pardon over a month ago, on Nov. 12, and that he was "happy for a favorable decision."

It was not immediately clear why he had not informed his lawyers and family of the pardon request, leaving them as surprised as anyone else on Thursday after Mr. Putin announced that clemency was imminent.

"The question of my admitting guilt was not raised," Mr. Khodorkovsky said in his statement, although the presidential pardon suggests that his conviction, as a matter of law, stands for now.

Adding a hint of defiance, Mr. Khodorkovsky said, "I would like to thank everyone who followed the Yukos case for all these years and for the support, which you gave to me, my family and all those who were unfairly convicted and continue to be persecuted."

He added: "I greatly await the minute when I can hug those close to me and personally shake the hands of my friends and colleagues. I constantly think about those who are still in prison."

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, issued a statement on Friday evening welcoming Mr. Khodorkovsky's release, for which she said she had "repeatedly petitioned the Russian president," according to her spokesman.

A former German foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, helped arrange Mr. Khodorkovsky's travel to Berlin, where he arrived on Friday as a private citizen, officials said. He had been held most recently in a prison colony in the Karelia region of northwestern Russia.

Nataliya V. Bystritskaya, a spokeswoman for Russia's prison system, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Khodorkovsky had flown to Germany to see his mother, who has undergone medical treatment there, after being issued documents allowing him to leave the country. "We emphasize that the flight took place at his request, and the documents for going abroad were issued at his personal request," Ms. Bystritskaya's office said in a statement.

Mr. Khodorkovsky's mother, Marina, however, said in a telephone interview that while she had sought treatment at a clinic in Berlin, she was currently in Moscow.

Mr. Khodorkovsky had left the prison in the Karelia region by midafternoon, according to Maksim Dbar, a spokesman for his press service. Mr. Khodorkovsky's lawyer, Vadim Klyuvgant, said he was unaware of the procedures for releasing his client.

Marina Khodorkovsky also said she and her husband had not yet been able to speak with their son, who while in prison was allowed a 15-minute phone call with them on Saturdays. "It's such an unusual situation that there is no procedure worked out for it, I think," she said in a telephone interview on the television network Dozhd. "Everything has been done so spontaneously that I can't say anything at all."

Mr. Khodorkovsky's pardon is all the more remarkable because only two weeks ago, Russia's deputy prosecutor general, Alexander G. Zvyagintsev, told the Interfax news agency that a third criminal case was being prepared against him and others that would "have very good prospects in court." Vladimir I. Markin, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee, declined on Friday to discuss the investigation or Mr. Putin's pardon decree.

Andrew Roth and Nikolay Khalip contributed reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 20, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the location of the Karelia region of Russia. It is near Finland, not Sweden.

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Jumaat, 20 Disember 2013