Is the Madeleine case at a crossroad?

The Madeleine McCann case seems to have reached a critical juncture: police are planning to start a new phase in the investigation, but there is a very real risk it may collapse in disarray.

The paradox is explained by a fundamental difference in the way the Portuguese and British police go about their business.

The forthcoming investigative activities will be conducted by the Polícia Judiciária working on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Service.

The normal and preferred practice of the Met is to brief the media on an ongoing basis. They do not necessarily reveal full details, but pass on as much information as possible while still safeguarding operations.

The Met says this usually ensures that media coverage assists rather than damages an investigation.

The policy of the PJ is very different. It does not brief the media on current investigations. The Portuguese penal code forbids this in order to avoid releasing anything that might prejudice a case.

The PJ has made its position very clear to the Met and the Met has alerted the British media: there will be no briefings on the joint operation from either side.

The PJ has warned that if the British police do pass on information, or if journalists cause any disruption, the new phase of the Madeleine investigation will be closed, at least until any infringement is sorted out. 

After talks with his PJ counterpart, the Met’s assistant commissioner, Mark Rowley, fully accepted this. “We respect the Portuguese position as we would expect them to respect our position if we were carrying out work on their behalf in the UK,” he said in a letter to editors. “Collectively we all need to think carefully about our actions in this case.”

In a statement on Facebook last week, Kate and Gerry McCann said that “interference” by journalists in the latest phase of the investigation “not only makes the work of the police more difficult, it can potentially damage and destroy the investigation altogether – and hence the chances of us finding Madeleine and discovering what has happened to her.”

Just before the 7th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance on May 3, the British media were full of stories about a lone sexual predator assaulting British girls on holiday in the Algarve.

Immediately after the anniversary, the spotlight switched to ground searches planned for specific sites.

The Mirror started the rash of stories on the searches with a “world exclusive” headlined “Maddie cops to start digging up resort.” It reported a source close to the McCanns as saying that “Kate and Gerry have been told police will be conducting the searches in and around Praia da Luz as soon as they get the green light from Portuguese authorities.”

The Mirror’s unnamed source went on to say that Kate and Gerry “don’t believe police are acting on any new tip off. They just need to carry out their own digs, looking for any possible clues that Portuguese authorities may have missed on their previous searches.”

Reports followed in several papers about growing tensions between the Met and the PJ. The Met was frustrated by the slowness of the bureaucratic process needed to get the searches underway. The PJ was irritated not only by media briefings, but also by the nature of the new phase of the investigation.

The PJ is said to have dismissed the Met’s theory that Madeleine may have been abducted by a lone predator suspected of attacking British girls. Furthermore, the PJ is said to consider digging for evidence in Praia da Luz a waste of time.

A point the mainstream media almost never touch on is that a great many sceptical observers, privately or in online forums, seriously question why the Met and the British media do not budge from the abduction hypothesis. The sceptics also wonder if the investigation is going anywhere except into oblivion.

Madeleine: digging for the truth?

The Portuguese Polícia Judiciária, often denigrated in the UK for their handling of the Madeleine McCann case, have made in clear they are in charge of the latest phase of the investigation and that the Metropolitan Police Service and the British media had better toe the line.  

Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner of the Met, says he has discussed with his PJ counterpart the high level of interest in the forthcoming ground search activity, some of which is likely to take place in public.

In an open letter to the British media, Rowley warned that “if we provide any briefings or information on the work they are undertaking on our behalf, or if reporters cause any disruption to their work in Portugal, activity will cease.”

The Met appealed for “media restraint” when it upped its two-year review to a fully-fledged investigation in July last year, but since then there has been an almost non-stop torrent of  media reports - mostly highly speculative and many plainly absurd - about ‘new leads’ and ‘prime suspects.’

The Mirror broke the latest news about the ground searches by quoting - not the Met police - but a source close to Madeleine’s parents.

“Kate and Gerry have been told police will be conducting the searches in and around Praia da Luz as soon as they get the green light from Portuguese authorities,” said the source.

Scotland Yard refused to comment, but the Mirror felt able to inform its readers, “There will be earth diggers everywhere and it will look very dramatic and it will be a heartbreaking and hugely emotional time for Madeleine’s poor parents.”

The paper’s unnamed source went on to make the assertion that “police have assured Kate and Gerry that it does not mean they are specifically searching for her body. They are doing searches as much as to rule scenarios out as much as rule them in.”

If the intention is not to search specifically for a body, “how many holes do you have to dig to rule out the existence of a body?” wondered an unnamed Portuguese police source quoted by the Portugal News.

“Why does the Metropolitan Police Service want to dig up holes if they believe Madeleine is still alive? How do you prove that somebody is alive by digging up holes?” the Portuguese police source added.

In questioning the usefulness of serious excavations in the village, a Praia da Luz resident told the Algarve Resident newspaper: “We’ve had so many people suspected of abducting the child, but none of them were thought to have been in the possession of heavy-duty, earth-digging equipment when they did so.”

The fact is, apart from the beach, the terrain in most of the neighbourhood consists of limestone bedrock. Even in the patches of shallow hard soil, how could an abductor have buried a body, or any other material evidence, unobserved and without tools?

In a wry observation, the Portugal News source said about the British detectives:  “Sincerely, it is not easy to understand them. But I’m sure they know what they are doing.”

A Portuguese judge apparently did not entirely agree and turned down as unwarranted a British police request to do house searches on ‘people of interest’ who worked at the complex where the McCanns were staying.

Meanwhile, the hope in the tranquil resort of Praia da Luz, and in the rest of Portugal, is that detectives from the PJ and the Met can work quietly and harmoniously as an efficient team and come up with some hard evidence that leads to justice for Madeleine.

May, a momentous month for Portugal

For Portugal’s main political parties, the country’s exit this month from its bailout programme happily coincides with the European parliamentary election.

With the economy showing signs of improvement thanks to the 2011 bailout and fierce austerity since then, the prospects for the pro-bailout parties have been boosted and they are certain to dominate the EU election.

Despite efforts by the main parties to keep Portugal at the heart of European integration, enthusiasm for the EU has been severely dented by the economic crisis within the eurozone.

Far-right, anti-EU parties are enjoying a surge in popularity across Europe. Portugal does not have a hard right party. In this country it is the radical left who are vehemently critical of the union.

In addition to condemnation from left wing politicians, the Portuguese government has had to cope with widespread public anger against the austerity demanded by the EU and IMF bailout deal. This may mellow with the country returning to growth, but optimism about the EU among the Portuguese people has been at a low ebb since enlargement of the union with Central and Eastern European countries in 2004.

As part of the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world, with more than 375 million eligible voters spread over 28 member states, the Portuguese will go to the polls on Sunday May 25. They will elect 21 candidates to the 766-member parliament.

A poll last month showed Portugal’s centre-left Socialists leading with 37.5% of the vote, the centre-right Social Democrat-People’s Party coalition with 32.5% and the communist-‘green’ Democratic Unity Coalition with 10.9%.

As in this country, mainstream centre-left and centre-right groups elsewhere are expected to hold control for another five years, but up to one-third of the elected parliamentarians could remain bitterly anti-EU.

In addition to the share of the votes picked up by each of the mainstream and radical political parties, it will interesting to see how many voters in Portugal and elsewhere choose not to vote.

The voter turnout in the EU has been in decline since the first election in 1979. It was down to 43% in the last election in 2009. A further decline this year will raise questions about the union’s democratic legitimacy.

Before then – on May 17 – Portugal will follow in Ireland’s footsteps and emerge from its €78 billion bailout and thus no longer have to answer to foreign creditors.

The Portuguese cabinet’s decision to make a “clean” exit without requesting any precautionary credit line has been formally conveyed to Europe’s finance ministers.

It means that the country now intends to stand on its own feet and rely on markets for financing rather than seeking further help from the bailout lenders.

“The decision to exit the bailout without a security net is a major success for the government, which has won over investor confidence by sticking to the harsh austerity and reforms required by the bailout,” Reuters reported after Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho made the announcement in a televised address flanked by his entire government.

Still, all is far from well with the economy. Years of austerity and high unemployment may lie ahead. The prime minister said in his address that the country was now “on the right path,” but he admitted that “the return of economic growth in the last year is yet to be translated into better day-to-day lives for a lot of people.”

Commented the Wall Street Journal: “The clean exit from the three-year rescue program caps a surprising turnaround for Western Europe's poorest economy, which last year began a slow climb out of recession but remains burdened by high unemployment, debt and inefficiencies that could take years to overcome.” 

    Meanwhile, we are in the midst of a momentous month that, no doubt, will turn out to be a contentious one too.

No wasted food, no hunger, no cost

Hunger in Portugal is widespread, mostly far from obvious, sometimes cloaked in shame.

Among those taking concerted action against hunger is an American with a dynamic project he is developing throughout Lisbon and spreading to urban areas in other regions of the country.   

Hunter Halder, 62, originally from a village near Richmond, Virginia, is the brains behind the so-called Re-Food programme designed to help end both hunger and food waste.  

Launched in Lisbon 2011, it so far involves 750 volunteers collecting and repackaging food from more than 300 outlets and distributing it daily to about 850 beneficiaries.

Almost all of Lisbon’s 24 parishes now have a Re-Food team, either already in action or being formed, says Halder. He has introduced the system to Oporto and just last weekend he ‘seeded’ the idea  at two well-attended meetings in the Algarve. While targeting other cities on the mainland, he also hopes to set up teams in the Azores and Madeira.

The scheme is intended to complement the work of the Portuguese federation of food banks and private charities running soup kitchens. They have been working together in Lisbon, helping each other where they can, even though Re-Food operates in a somewhat different way. 

“What Re-Food brings to the table,” Halder explained, “is an abundance of excellent, ready-to-eat food every day at no, or almost no, cost.

“This is a very big deal because reducing food insufficiency is only possible if massive amounts of food at practically no cost can be obtained daily.

“We target every single scrap of excess prepared food within our neighbourhoods by going to every café, restaurant and grocery store every day they are open.

“We raise a team of hundreds of local volunteers - walking, riding bikes and using cars when necessary - to harvest 100% of the previously wasted food, every day, rain or shine. 

“We deliver that food to people who are not being served by existing institutions, be they homeless, jobless or in any other condition that leaves them without the means to secure the food they need.

“We go door to door to find and serve those who are ashamed of their need and who, therefore, are practically invisible.”

The project is totally non-profit-making and no one connected with it is paid anything.  

“We want everyone who ever serves or donates to this project to know that 100% of their effort, goodwill or resources will be applied exclusively to expand the benefits of our work,” says Halder.

Although he describes the project as being still in the early stages of development, he is optimistic that Lisbon can become the first city in the world with virtually no food waste and no hunger. He foresees no limit to the Re-Food model and believes it can go national, even global.

Using four basic criteria - reducing unnecessary food waste, reducing food insufficiency, strengthening community ties and replication – he is happy to share the Re-Food model with anyone keen to implement it.

The charismatic Hunter Halder has lived in Lisbon for 23 years. His first visit was during a pilgrimage to Fátima in 1988. He married a Portuguese tour guide with whom he had a son. It was his son Christopher, now 24, who came up with the name Re-Food and co-founded the project with his father.

Before that, Hunter’s two young daughters from his second marriage frequently commented about wastage in restaurants and this inspired him to do something about it. His daughters, Mayara, 22, and Raissa, 19, are now both involved in Re-Food.   

Halder’s sights are set high, but because of his organisational and operational skills he remains pragmatic.

“It is, of course, impossible to end all food waste,” he conceded, giving as an example the top of the onion you cut off and throw away when making a salad.

“But it is possible to end the trashing of enormous amounts of perfectly good food. The Re-Food model can achieve this because of the power of community mobilisation and the fact that we work at the local community level.

“With respect to ending hunger in Lisbon or anywhere else, a dose of humility and reality is in order. We have always had hunger with us and it will not go quietly away. That said, it is also true that the public and private institutions, as well as businesses and citizens, have worked, and are working, to alleviate hunger. All of these efforts are needed.

 “Our strategic trajectory has always been to complete our work on the micro local level,  replicate throughout the city of Lisbon and then throughout all cities.

“But reality does not follow strategic models. We began replicating throughout Lisbon and beyond long before completing the full implementation in the original parish.

“Similarly, we began replicating in other cities long before Lisbon has been fully implanted. We expect to be replicating internationally long before completing our national work.

“We have to try to build the capacity to respond to all who want to replicate. The project is universal and we intend to make it universally available,” said Halder.

So far, the project has encountered remarkably few difficulties. The biggest was taking the initial decision in March 2011. Since then it has been easy-going, except for the work involved, of course.  

“The food is there for the taking. The volunteers are hungry to help. The community has all of the resources needed. But the true driver is that people want to bring these benefits to their own neighbourhoods.” 

Saying sorry for centuries of slavery

Portugal faces a controversial set of demands to make amends for the centuries-old transatlantic slave trade.

The 15 member states of the Caribbean Community common market organisation CARICOM, have unanimously approved an action plan seeking reparations from Portugal and several other European countries.

Portugal pioneered the trade in Africans slaves in the Atlantic region. For two hundred years - in the 15th and 16th centuries - Portugal had a monopoly. It was also the last European country to abolish slavery. It did not do so until the late 19th century, by which time it had transported more than five million slaves across the Atlantic, far more than any other country.

    Estimates vary, but it is thought that Europeans forcibly moved at least 12.5 million African slaves to the New World, mainly to toil in colonial plantations and mines. The multi-national trade reaped huge profits throughout the 17th century, and peaked towards the end of the 18th when 100,000 slaves a year were being transported.

The destination for most of Portugal’s human trafficking was Brazil. Portugal also helped supply slave labour to Spain’s American empire. It was less directly involved in trade with the islands of the Caribbean administered by the British, French, Dutch and Scandinavian colonialists.

The wealth accrued from slave labour was vast. It helped finance Britain’s Industrial Revolution. With their sugar plantations, the British West Indies were among Britain’s most valuable colonies.

Ships sailing the triangular route from Europe to West Africa, across to the New World and then back home, were always heavily laden. The central ‘cargoes’ were people shackled in chains.

Such were the horrific conditions on board ships making the so-called ‘middle passage’ westward, that an estimated one in seven slaves died of disease or malnutrition before making landfall.

The action plan approved by the CARICOM Reparations Commission meeting in St Vincent highlights ten points, “to achieve reparatory justice for the victims of genocide, slavery, slave trading, and racial apartheid.” 

Top of the list of demands is a “full, formal apology.”

The chairman of the commission, Sir Hilary Beckles, said: “Reparations for slavery, and the century of racial apartheid that replaced it into the 1950s, resonate as a popular right today in Caribbean communities because of the persistent harm and suffering linked to the crimes against humanity under colonialism.”

Martyn Day, a lawyer who is advising the commission, said:  “This is a very comprehensive and fair set of demands on the governments whose countries grew rich at the expense of those regions whose human wealth was stolen from them.”

So far, the plan has attracted little international attention – certainly nothing to compare with the publicity bestowed on the Oscar-winning film 12 Years a Slave.

If the Europeans decline to negotiate, which seems likely, a long-drawn out process in the UN International Court of Justice may be the only option open to the Caribbean Community.

The commission insists its main objective is not to exact huge sums from European taxpayers. And it is not looking to be compensated for slavery itself, but rather slavery’s lasting legacy. 

Referring to one of its 10 demands - ‘Debt Cancellation’ – the commission says: “Caribbean governments that emerged from slavery and colonialism have inherited the massive crisis of community poverty and institutional unpreparedness for development. These governments still daily engage in the business of cleaning up the colonial mess in order to prepare for development.”

Other demands focus on cultural, educational, psychological and public health issues, and also on a repatriation program for descendants who wish to resettle back in their ancestors’ countries of origin.

At first glance, the apology demand would seem to be the easiest to satisfy. Some governments have already issued ‘statements of regret’ rather than full apologies, but in the commission’s view these are unacceptable because they “represent a refusal to take responsibility for the crimes committed.”

Cash-strapped European nations such as Portugal will fear that making full apologies and paying reparations would set a precedent under which they could be expected to compensate all of the nations they exploited in colonial times.

In other words, saying sorry could open up an expensive Pandora’s Box of wrongdoings in bygone empires.

Madeleine case in a right old muddle

News of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann seems to be going round in circles. ‘Revelations’ turn out to be old stories recycled. ‘Key suspects’ come and go and are then brought back again. ‘New leads’ seem to be leading nowhere.  

The Mirror yesterday (March 25) declared: “Mirror investigation reveals that sicko David Reid was hiding in the Algarve at the time Madeleine McCann was taken from Praia da Luz.” The Daily Mail followed with much the same story.

Far from this being news, Reid’s criminal record and presence in the Algarve village of Carvoeiro was written about by the News of the World in 2006. Similar reports appeared in newspapers in Portugal in May 2008.  

A popular musician and well-known locally as ‘Irish Dave’, Reid admitted he had served 18 months of a three-year sentence for indecent assault and gross indecency, as a result of complaints from his own children.  

But he insisted he was not a paedophile and told reporters in 2008 he was “glad the skeletons are out of the closet.” He hoped people would let him “live in peace.”  

Of course he was not counting on a ‘revelation’ as a result of a Mirror ‘investigation’ six years on.

The gist of the latest statement from the Met police in London on their investigation also sounded remarkably similar to what has long been in the public domain, but the so-called ‘quality’ press, along with the tabloids, churned it out as if it were not only a hot new lead, but even “a breakthrough.”

The Met statement appealed for further information on “a potential linked series of twelve crimes which occurred between 2004 and 2010, mostly in low season, whereby a male intruder has gained access to mainly holiday villas occupied by UK families on holiday in the Western Algarve.”

In four of the cases, the intruder is alleged to have sexually assaulted five white girls, aged between seven and ten years, in their beds.

Senior ex-police officers, led by former detective inspector Dave Edgar and hired by parents Kate and Gerry, looked into sexual attacks on at least five English girls between 2004 and 2007. Their findings were described in some detail by the News of the World in May 2009.

Kate McCann also wrote about the assaults in her book published in May 2012: “One of the most concerning and upsetting pieces of information to emerge quite early was the record of sexual crimes against children in the Algarve. This discovery made me feel physically sick. I read of five cases of British children on holiday being sexually abused in their beds while their parents slept in another room. In three further incidents, children encountered an intruder in their bedrooms, who was presumably disturbed before he had the chance to carry out an assault.”

Yet even The Times last week felt moved to report that “A sex attacker who preyed on young British girls holidaying with their families on the Algarve is a key suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann seven years ago, police said today.”

Other “key” suspects over the past few months have included Gypsies, British cleaners, bogus East European charity workers and two mystery German-speaking men, but according to the latest Met statement, witnesses described the supposedly lone sex attacker as “having dark (as in tanned) skin with short dark unkempt hair.”

The Met did not identify the latest “key” suspect, but a headline in the Guardian the day after the Met appeal read: “Madeleine McCann suspect died in 2009.”

It called this a “revelation” gleaned from “a source close to Portuguese investigators.”

We had read it all before, of course.

Early last November, the Daily Mail, among many other papers, named and carried a photograph of a 40-year-old black African, saying the Portuguese police believed he may have killed Madeleine two years before he died in a tractor accident.

 This disclosure came soon after all the BBC Crimewatch fuss over new e-fit images that turn out not be new at all, depicting a man who certainly did not look like a black African.

The Guardian’s source said the dead man had been at the centre of Portuguese police inquiries since they reopened the case last October, but they had not drawn any definite conclusions about him.

He “could” have been involved in the five assaults on white girls - and even the disappearance of Madeleine - but it was no more than a “possibility,” the source said.

The Guardian also ran a story last week headlined: “Madeleine McCann: a breakthrough that could be devastating.”

It did not mean devastating to the widow of the smeared African, a man with no record of child molestation and no opportunity to defend himself.

The Guardian explained that by identifying a series of sex attacks, the Met Police had made a breakthrough in its investigation, but that based on similar cases, “it could mean an end to hopes that Madeleine is alive.”

It is a hope many have long abandoned. Even Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, the senior British investigating officer, has conceded she may have died in the apartment.

Portuguese detectives and prosecutors, as well as specialist British investigators and a British police dog handler, came to that conclusion years ago.

The former lead detective in the original Portugal investigation, Gonçalo Amaral, reiterated in a recent interview his firm belief that Madeleine died in the apartment the same day or night she disappeared.

As reported in the Algarve Resident, he claimed his investigation was marred by high-level political involvement, which left DNA samples untested and key witnesses overlooked.

Amaral and his many supporters completely reject the notion that Madeleine was abducted - and, indeed, there is no hard evidence to support the theory.

In using the term ‘abduction’ or ‘kidnapping’ of Madeleine McCann, the mainstream media rarely qualify this assertion with words such as ‘alleged,’ ‘possible’ or ‘suspected.’

Nor were such words used when Redwood said last week:  “The Metropolitan Police Service continues to offer a reward of up to £20,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and prosecution of the person(s) responsible for the abduction of Madeleine McCann from Praia da Luz, Portugal on 3 May 2007.”

Twenty thousand pounds! It’s a far cry from the £2.5 million reward offered within days of Madeleine’s disappearance, and a drop in the ocean compared to the millions Kate and Gerry have since received in donations, on top of the amount the Met has spent so far in its fruitless search.

Lisbon reaction to Russian ‘landgrab’

The Ukrainian Ambassador to Lisbon and the non-governmental Association of Ukrainians in Portugal this week added their voices to the near universal condemnation of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine’s sovereign territory that has led to the spectre of war.

Prior to the fast-tracked treaty signed by Russia and Crimea on Tuesday, Ambassador Oleksandr Nykonento denounced Sunday’s referendum and said the vote in favour of Crimea re-joining Russia did not represent “the real will of the people” as it was conducted under “a foreign military presence.”

While acknowledging that Portugal “has already given support to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” the ambassador said he would like “this voice of support to be more consistent and more practical.”

He also indicated he was not happy with the response of the EU to the growing crisis in his country. He hoped for more solidarity from the international community, particularly the EU.

 It is understood that the Ukraine wants strong political support of its territorial integrity; urgent financial support to keep afloat its economy and social support system during a transitional period; long-term economic facilities to support structural reforms and integration into EU markets.

Portugal’s Foreign Minister Rui Machete said after a meeting in Brussels on Monday that the EU was fully behind Ukraine and that there should be no doubt as to its political and economic support.

Meanwhile, the sanctions proposed so far by both the EU and the US against what has been described as Russia’s ‘landgrab,’ have been widely dismissed by international commentators as “feeble” and “toothless.”

By contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech in Moscow on Tuesday was unequivocal and defiant. Crimea, he declared, “always has been and always will be an inalienable part of Russia.”

During a debate in parliament in Lisbon two weeks ago Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho called for “for mediation and for moderation” in the way people express opinions on the crisis in Ukraine. “It’s an appeal we make to all our European partners, but also to all international institutions,” he said.

The Association of Ukrainians in Portugal, the biggest body representing the second largest immigrant community in this country, says it intends to continue holding what it calls ‘awareness-raising’ protest rallies outside the Russian Embassy in Lisbon until Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine.

The association’s president, Pavlo Sadokha, has described Russia’s intervention in the Ukraine autonomous region of Crimea as “illegal and in breach of international law,” and likened it to Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938.

 “Ukraine is a multicultural state respectful of its minorities, and it should continue like that. In Crimea, unfortunately, the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar minorities are subject to discrimination, especially in these days of occupation.”

Mr Sadokha added that Russia’s intervention was “a challenge for the stability in Europe and the world. It is a matter for all of us.”

The prospect of armed conflict arising from the present tense situation has prompted more than 50 Ukrainian men taking part in the Lisbon rallies to submit their names for enrollment in the newly formed National Guard of Ukraine.

If Russia goes ahead and formally absorbs Crimea into the Federation - as now seems certain – or broadens its intervention in the Ukraine, it could lead to a humanitarian crisis with large numbers of refugees seeking sanctuary elsewhere in Ukraine or abroad.