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Legal pioneer who brought justice to war-torn Sierra Leone

Robin Vincent obituary

Robin Vincent stood up to judges and bureaucrats with rational argument

Robin Vincent, who has died of cancer aged 67, was an unsung hero of the international justice movement. At the time it was faltering after 9/11, he stepped out of the genteel environs of the Lord Chancellor's Department into war-torn Sierra Leone, and not only set up an international court there, but made it work.

 

His achievement was such that the United Nations turned to him again, in desperate need of his expertise, to get the Lebanon Tribunal (dealing with the assassination in 2005 of the Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri) off the ground. Today, with the former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic arrested, the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi indicted, and a verdict imminent on the former Liberian president Charles Taylor, the principle of putting political and military leaders on trial for crimes against humanity seems accepted, but only because there is proof that it can work in practice. That proof owes much to Robin's managerial skill, belief in justice and sense of fair play.

 

Robin was Worcester-born and bred, a lifelong cricketer who went straight from school into the courts service, starting as a deputy clerk to the county justices. His rare ability to deal with the egos of lawyers and judges and run a courtroom, while juggling jurors and ushers and listing officials, was soon noticed and he advanced steadily to the chief clerkship of the crown court in Birmingham and then in Manchester.

 

The Lord Chancellor's Department then brought him in 1986 to London, where he headed several divisions (including judicial appointments) before leading the Court Service Agency from 1993 until 2001. It was then that the British Council realised that his unusual skill was exportable, and dispatched him to cities in Russia to train court administrators. Robin had found his mission to bring justice to places where it had been absent for too long.

 

Bringing it to the aftermath of the war in Sierra Leone one of the world's poorest nations was one of the UN's biggest challenges. He helped to design a hybrid court which would sit not in the safety of The Hague but at the scene of the crime, with international judges and prosecutors working in tandem with Sierra Leone appointees. He became the registrar of the special court for war crimes, and from 2002 to 2006 he oversaw the building of its prison, its legal offices and its courtrooms in Freetown, and organised its trials and appeals, which have contributed to the development of international criminal law, notably on the illegality of recruiting child soldiers and the invalidity of amnesties for those chiefly responsible for crimes against humanity.

 

Freetown was still a hazardous place when the court began its work in December 2002, especially with the prevalence of malaria. Several bouts did not stop Robin. With his assistant Robert Thompson, he recruited and trained a team of officials and dealt calmly but cunningly with UN bureaucracy, local corruption and over-demanding judges. His work on the ground was interspersed with flights to New York to argue for resources to keep the court in business.

 

At one point he sent a list of essential demands direct to the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, threatening to resign if they were not met. "You shouldn't resign, old chap," said a visiting stuffed-shirt from London. "You won't get your 'k'." "I don't give a damn about my 'k'," replied Robin, "I only care about my court." Annan came through with the necessary resources, and in 2006 Robin was appointed CMG. He had been made CBE in 2001.

 

It was my privilege, as the court's first president, to work with Robin, most importantly to establish a defence office headed by a "principal defender", in order to correct the organisational bias in favour of the prosecutor that had been apparent at Nuremberg and in early tribunals in The Hague. This became a precedent for later courts. Robin also set up a successful programme to explain the court's work in schools and at public meetings throughout the country. Transparency was a feature of his management style. When the rebel leader Foday Sankoh died of natural causes in our prison, Robin's thorough and quickly published report into his death prevented conspiracy theories from taking hold.

 

Robin was a joy to work with, and (his staff attest) to work for. A humble man (except when sledging Australians over cricket), he stood up to judges and bureaucrats with rational argument against their claims of privilege or red tape. He was full of good humour and kindness, and sponsored an extraordinary local football team of limbless victims (mutilation had been a favourite rebel tactic). Asked the secret of his successful court management, he said: "A registrar should be like the referee at the football match which ends with the crowd asking 'where's the ref?' Because he did such a good job, they never noticed him."

 

Robin is survived by Hazel, his wife of 40 years, along with his two sons, Mark and Steven, and four grandchildren. Until his service abroad, he was a first team player with Stockport Georgians Cricket Club.

 

Robin Anthony Vincent, legal manager, born 27 February 1944; died 12 June 2011

 


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3/Mega-rich prosper in austerity Britain where millions struggle with soaring living costs

 

 

By Roger Baird

 

Wealthy: The royal Duke of Westminster is an example of the typical super-rich person

Times may be tough for millions of Britons struggling with soaring living costs but that hasnt stopped the number of super-rich from growing.

 

There are now nearly 500,000 mega-wealthy people with plenty of liquid cash on top of their valuable property and pensions, according to the World Wealth Report.

 

These dollar millionaires have the equivalent of £625,000 in investable assets or ready cash which is not tied up in their homes or pensions.

 

In the last year, their ranks grew by 1.4 per cent to 454,300, said the survey by U.S. investment giant Merrill Lynch.

 

Most are over 45 but exceptions included Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, 21, worth £48million, and B&M discount chain boss Robin Arora, 26, worth £343million.

 

The fortunes of the rich were swelled by the rising stock market prices which followed the recession as well as a 5.5 per cent rise in UK exports.

 

However, the growth in this country was eclipsed by the Asia-Pacific region, where the ranks of dollar millionaires surged by nearly a tenth in 12 months.

 

The total in countries including China and India now stands at 3.3million.

 

That passed the 3.1million in Europe for the first time in the surveys 15-year history.

 

Overall, the number and wealth of the rich grew last year as the global economy stumbled towards recovery.

 

Across the world, the wealthy grew by 8.3 per cent to 10.9million people who have a mind-boggling $42.7trillion between them tucked away in their bank accounts.

 

Both the number of very rich and their net worth beat the highs reached in 2007 before financial crises swept the world.

 

This growth, however, is unevenly spread around the globe.

 

In booming Asia-Pacific, the dollar millionaires assets rocketed 12.1 per cent to $10.8trillion and in Latin America they soared 9.2 per cent to $7.3trillion.

 

By comparison, Europes rich increased their wealth by the lowest amount, rising 7.2 per cent to $10.2trillion.

 

America remains the bastion of the super-rich, boasting 3.4million people worth a total of $11.6trillion.

 

The type of people who inherit wealth or are making their own riches is also beginning to change.

 

Typically, three-quarters of the worlds super-rich are men and four out of five are over 45, including Sir Richard Branson and the Duke of Westminster.

 

But the figures reveal that young people boosted their presence among this elite from 13 per cent to 17 per cent in two years.

 

In Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan, 41 per cent of the rich are under 45.

 

But even the very wealthy may be hit by problems in the future, such as the euro debt crisis, rising inflation and unrest in the Middle East.

 

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4/Charlie Chaplin's first attempt at 'talkie' is discovered

Handwritten manuscript shows actor's early faltering attempts at dialogue in a satire on colonialism

 

 

Charlie Chaplin in the 1931 silent film City Lights, released after the first talkies. Photograph: Charles Chaplin Productions/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

A manuscript revealing Charlie Chaplin's first shot at a "talkie" has come to light in the family archives.

 

Fifty handwritten pages outline the dialogue for a satire on colonialism, inspired by the British-born star's visit to the Indonesian island of Bali in 1932.

 

Chaplin agonised over his future in a new world of film sound, and the manuscript reveals his initial faltering steps in dialogue. He planned a film, titled Bali, lampooning European arrogance on the paradise island and the invasion of a people's idyllic life. He poked fun at colonials taxing natives to build roads they did not need and making them harvest more rice than they could eat.

 

Chaplin was the comic genius who created the little tramp, society's eternal victim, with derby hat, toothbrush moustache and impossibly large boots one of entertainment's most universally recognised characters. But, within years of classics such as The Gold Rush, he was struggling to adapt a craft fine-tuned from music-hall pantomime to cinematic sound.

 

As if in denial, he was still making silents or films with sound but no dialogue when talkies were already wowing audiences. He released City Lights in 1931 well after the first talkie, The Jazz Singer, and after All Quiet on the Western Front.

 

Cinema's new era took its toll on his confidence. Astonishingly, he even contemplated giving it all up to become a British MP. Years later, he recalled: "Although City Lights was a great triumph I was obsessed by a depressing fear of being old-fashioned."

 

It was only in 1940 that he made his first talkie, The Great Dictator, his masterpiece satirising Hitler. David Robinson, the definitive Chaplin biographer, believes that the Bali manuscript which he describes as "a new and unknown Chaplin project" may be his earliest attempt at a talkie, although Chaplin wrote dialogue for City Lights that was never used.

 

News of the Bali manuscript was released to the Guardian by the Association Chaplin, founded by the family, which has just authorised the publication of some of his unpublished writings in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, a centre specialising in silent and long-lost films. Kate Guyonvarch, the association's director, said the family knew of the manuscript and had decided to share it with the public. She said: "I had always assumed that when Chaplin had finished City Lights, he just had a long holiday. I now realise that this was a crucial crisis point in his life."

 

Chaplin visited Bali with his brother, Sydney, who was keen to film the island's topless women.

 

Chaplin was charmed by other aspects of the island. Fascinated to learn that the natives worked only a few months in the rice fields, devoting the rest of their time to culture, he wrote: "From these people one gleans the true meaning of life to work and play play being as important as work to man's existence. That is why they are happy."

 

Dutch interference with their way of life inspired him to write at speed across lined yellow pages, repeatedly reworking scenes. He saw the comic potential of locals paying taxes for roads. In one passage, the island's king says: "If we want roads, we can build them ourselves like we build everything else, without taxes, without gold."

 

In another, a native wonders what the colonials do with their gold: "You never see them wear it on their necks or their wrists." Somebody answers: "They wear it in their pockets. It's a wonder it doesn't tear their two-legged sarongs."

 

Neither side understands the other. A colonial says: "A country as rich as this is all going to waste on a lot of savages."

 

Chaplin also included a trademark love affair between a prince and a low-caste girl. Guyonvarch thinks Chaplin might have played the king or a colonial

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5/ Greece still likely to default, says top bond investor

Greek prime minister George Papandreou won a crucial vote of confidence on Tuesday night but he still needs to push new spending cuts through parliament

 

 

Protests in Greece. A top investor has warned that the country is likely to default. Photograph: Simela Pantzartzi/EPA

The head of Pimco, the world's biggest bond trader, has warned that Greece is still likely to default on its debts, despite prime minister George Papandreou winning a crucial vote of confidence late on Tuesday night.

 

Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of Pimco, ratcheted up the pressure on Europe's leaders by predicting that other eurozone members could also follow Greece into default territory.

 

"For the next three years, we're going to see different economies work out different problems. For European economies, especially Greece, it would be through default," El-Erian told reporters in Taipei on Wednesday via a video conference, according to Reuters.

 

The warning came as shares slid across Europe, as attention shifted to Papandreou's next challenge persuading the Greek parliament to approve a new package of asset sales and spending cuts next week. In London, the FTSE 100 fell as much as 33 points in morning trading and the euro also sagged, as experts warned that Papandreou's narrow victory did little to address the wider eurozone crisis.

 

 

Violent clashes erupted in Athens after Greek prime minister George Papandreou won a new parliamentary vote of confidence on Tuesday Link to this video

Papandreou won Tuesday's vote of confidence by 155 votes to 143, with every member of the governing socialist party supporting him.

 

"The result shows that Papandreou has the backing of his party. We now expect that the unity shown last night will be repeated in next week's austerity vote," said Joshua Raymond, market strategist at City Index.

 

Raymond added that Wednesday's lacklustre market reaction was understandable, after traders pushed the FTSE 100 up by 1.5% on Tuesday amid optimism that Papandreou would survive.

 

Greece must approve Papandreou's austerity plan next week to qualify for an immediate 12bn (£10bn) lifeline, and then a second bailout worth over 100bn. There is doubt, though, over whether the measures can be imposed on an increasingly unhappy population.

 

"Everything depends on Greece implementing the measures," Lord Brittan, the former vice president of the European commission, told the BBC's Today programme. "Legislating is one thing, implementing is another, and Greece's history of implementation is not a happy one," Brittan added.

 

Jane Foley of Rabobank International agreed, saying there was "widespread scepticism" in the bond markets about the ability of the Greek political system to implement the reform.

 

Crowds gathered outside the Greek parliament ahead of the vote of confidence, with some shouting "we give a vote of no confidence" at the lawmakers gathered inside. There were some clashes between protestors and riot police, who reportedly deployed tear gas at one point.

 

No plan B for Greece

 

European leaders hope to agree the details of a second rescue package for Greece in early July, in the face of critics who claim that the country should drop out of the eurozone rather than accept another bailout. Such a deal could include a "voluntary debt rollover", where Greece's lenders agree to buy new, longer-dated bonds when their existing securities mature.

 

However, credit rating agencies have already warned that they would declare Greece to be in default if its lenders agree to roll over their debts in this way.

 

German chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Wednesday that a full-scale restructuring of Greek debt could have "uncontrollable consequences" for the financial markets, triggering insurance policies credit default swaps taken out to protect against default.

 

"Nobody around the globe knows exactly who holds those papers, who will have to pay how much," Merkel told a German parliamentary committee.

 

The European commission also insisted on Wednesday that Greece needed to pass, and implement, the austerity measures that will be voted on next week.

 

"There is no alternative. We have a plan, now it's time to act on it there is no plan B," a commission spokesman told a news conference in Brussels.

 

Prime minister David Cameron reiterated that the UK government does not intend to contribute to the second rescue package, beyond its commitments as a member of the International Monetary Fund.

 

"We don't believe the European Financial Stability Mechanism should be used for Greece. We have made it clear that's not appropriate, and I don't think it will happen," Cameron told the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions.

 

Britain faces a potential liability of 5.5bn if the EFSM was used to fund another Greek rescue deal. It currently holds 37.5bn.

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