Experts quit Hong Kong police probe, in blow to government

Yahoo – AFP, December 11, 2019

The Hong Kong government has repeatedly rejected demands from protesters
for a fully independent inquiry into police behaviour during the protests (AFP
Photo/DALE DE LA REY)

An international panel of experts hired to advise Hong Kong on the police response to huge pro-democracy protests announced Wednesday they were quitting, saying the watchdog was not fit for purpose "in a society that values freedoms and rights".

The group's damning conclusion is a blow to Hong Kong's government, which has insisted its Independent Police Complaints Commission is capable of holding the force to account over snowballing claims of brutality.

"We ultimately concluded that a crucial shortfall was evident in the powers, capacity and independent investigative capability of IPCC," the experts said.

Critics have long charged the body lacks adequate powers, is stacked with pro-establishment figures and has been toothless when it comes to keeping the police in line.

The watchdog can only handle complaints forwarded by the police themselves and it cannot subpoena documents or compel witnesses to testify.

Such limitations, the expert panel said, do not "begin to meet the standards citizens of Hong Kong would likely require of a police watchdog operating in a society that values freedoms and rights".

Police detain protesters after they attempted to escape the campus of the
Hong Kong Polytechnic University in November (AFP Photo/ANTHONY WALLACE)

Protests have rocked Hong Kong for more than six months, with up to two million people taking to the streets, initially against a now-shelved extradition bill.

Latterly, one of the core demands of protesters -- alongside fully free elections -- has been an inquiry into the police, who have been left to battle increasingly violent black-clad activists and are now loathed by significant chunks of the deeply polarised population.

But both chief executive Carrie Lam and the police have repeatedly rejected those calls.

Pro-democracy lawmaker Tanya Chan described the resignation of the expert group as a "vote of no confidence" in the IPCC and the interim report it is expected to produce next year.

Political scientist Ma Ngok said the panel's decision confirmed Hong Kong people's doubts on the IPCC's ability to find the truth.

"The government's strategy of making the report independent by having a panel of overseas experts has failed," Ngok told AFP.

Police officers point their guns at protesters in Tseun Wan in Hong Kong 

in August (AFP Photo/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)

Public row

The panel was announced in September and was chaired by Sir Dennis O'Connor, who was tasked by the British government to write a report on the police after the 2011 London riots.

It included current or former police watchdog chiefs from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and a British specialist on crowd behaviour.

A month ago, a leaked statement from the group revealed they felt the police watchdog was not equipped to carry out a proper investigation, and suggested a fully independent inquiry would be better suited.

But their frank assessment was not welcomed by Anthony Neoh, the IPCC's head.

He gave an interview to a mainland Chinese media outlet rebuking the panel, saying they "do not understand Hong Kong's situation".

On Sunday, an estimated 800,000 people marched peacefully through the city's streets in a movement that has become a popular revolt against Beijing's authoritarian rule.

Police arrest a protester at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University 

in November (AFP Photo/DALE DE LA REY)

The last three weeks have seen a rare lull in the violence and vandalism after pro-democracy parties won a landslide in local council elections.

"Do not waste time, and please grab this golden opportunity to persuade Beijing... to support an independent commission of inquiry," lawmaker Chan added.

An end to violence is something Lam has insisted must be a precursor to meaningful dialogue.

But she has shown no sign she is willing to budge, leading to fears clashes could resume.

In her weekly press conference on Tuesday she dismissed protesters' demands once more as she announced plans to go to Beijing this weekend where she is expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

China has publicly thrown its support behind both Lam and the city's police, even as their approval ratings take a hammering.

Indian police kill rape-murder suspects, sparking celebrations

Yahoo – AFP, Jalees ANDRABI, Abhaya SRIVASTAVA, December 6, 2019

Several hundred people flocked to the scene of the four men's deaths on
December 6, setting off firecrackers to celebrate and showering police with
flower petals (AFP Photo/NOAH SEELAM)

Shadnagar (India) (AFP) - Indian police on Friday shot dead four gang-rape and murder suspects, prompting celebrations but also accusations that they were extrajudicial executions.

The men, who had been in custody for a week over the latest rape case to shock India, were shot in the early hours during a re-enactment of the crime organised by police in Shadnagar, outside the southern city of Hyderabad.

"The police brought the accused to the crime spot as part of the investigation. The accused then started attacking the police with stones and sticks and then snatched the weapons and started firing," police commissioner V.C. Sajjanar said.

"The police warned them and asked them to surrender but they continued to fire. Then we opened fire and they were killed in the encounter," he told reporters at the scene, adding that the men had confessed to the crime during interrogation.

Television images showed the shoeless bodies of the suspects still lying in an open field on Friday afternoon, with guns in the hands of two of them.

The men were shot in the early morning as they tried to escape during the 

staged re-enactment in Hyderabad, police said (AFP Photo/NOAH SEELAM)

The four men were accused of gang-raping and murdering a 27-year-old veterinary doctor before setting fire to her body underneath an isolated bridge late on November 27.

Like in the infamous 2012 rape and murder of a woman on a Delhi bus, the case sparked demonstrations and calls for swift and tough justice.

Shortly after their arrest hundreds of protesters also tried to storm the police station where they were held.

At one demonstration in Delhi, some women wielded swords while one lawmaker called for the men to be "lynched" and another for rapists to be castrated.

Showered in petals

Police are often accused of using extrajudicial killings to bypass the legal process to cover-up botched investigations or to pacify public anger.

A huge backlog of cases in the slow Indian criminal justice means that many rape victims wait years for justice.

Activists protest against the rape and murder of a 27-year-old woman in India. 

Police later shod dead the four detained suspects as they re-enacted the crime 

(AFP Photo/Narinder NANU)

Several hundred people flocked to the scene of the men's deaths on Friday, setting off firecrackers to celebrate and showering police with flower petals and hoisting them on their shoulders.

"I am happy the four accused have been killed in an encounter. This incident will set an example. I thank the police and media for their support," the victim's sister told a local television station.

Women distributed sweets and tied Hindu ritual threads on the wrists of policemen to thank them.

Further celebrations were held elsewhere in the country, including in the western state of Gujarat.

Many social media users, including politicians, celebrities and athletes hailed the Telangana state police.

"Great work #hyderabadpolice ..we salute u," top women's badminton player Saina Nehwal tweeted, while fellow badminton star P.V. Sindhu wrote that "Justice has been served!"

Tens of thousands of women are raped in India each year, according to police 

data (AFP Photo/Dibyangshu SARKAR)

Cricketer Harbhajan Singh congratulated police and the state government for "showing this is how it is done(.) no one should dare doing something like this again in future".

And Rajyavardhan Rathore, a former minister and current MP from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party wrote on Twitter: "Let all know this is the country where good will always prevail over evil".

'State murders'

But lawyer and activist Vrinda Grover told AFP the killings were "absolutely unacceptable".

"Instead of investigation and prosecution the state is committing murders to distract the public and avoid accountability," she said.

India's former federal minister for women and child development, Maneka Gandhi termed the incident "dangerous".

People in Bangalore hold a candlelight vigil in support of sexual assault victims 

and against the alleged rape of a veterinary doctor, on December 6 (AFP Photo/

Manjunath Kiran)

"They would have anyway got hanging for their heinous crime, but you can't just pick up guns and kill people because you want to. Because law is tardy, you can't kill people," Gandhi told reporters.

"To appease public rage over state failures against sexual assault, Indian authorities commit another violation," tweeted Meenakshi Ganguly from Human Rights Watch.

Amnesty International India said the "alleged extrajudicial execution" raised disturbing questions and called for an independent investigation.

"In a modern and rights-respecting society, using extrajudicial executions to offer justice to victims of rape is not only unconstitutional but circumvents the Indian legal system and sets a grossly wrong precedent," it said in a statement.

Police said a postmortem was completed Friday of the four suspects' bodies, PTI reported.

The state high court directed that a video of the procedure be delivered to a principal district judge and that the bodies be preserved until Monday evening, the newswire said.

Police called on diplomats as APEC summit tensions boil over

Yahoo – AFP, November 18, 2018

Tensions have been high at the APEC summit in Papua New Guinea after a
spat between the United States and China (AFP Photo/PETER PARKS)

Police were called when Chinese officials attempted to "barge" into the office of Papua New Guinea's foreign minister, it emerged Sunday, as APEC summit tensions boiled over.

The Chinese delegates "tried to barge in" to Rimbink Pato's Port Moresby office Saturday, in an eleventh-hour bid to influence a summit draft communique, but were denied entry, three sources with knowledge of the situation told AFP.

"Police were posted outside the minister's office after they tried to barge in," one source privy to summit negotiations told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The diplomatic incident came with tensions already high at a summit of Asian-Pacific leaders that has been overshadowed by a spat between the United States and China.

Pato had refused to meet with the delegates, according to a source, who said: "It's not appropriate for the minister to negotiate solo with the Chinese. The Chinese negotiating officials know this."

The minister himself sought to downplay the incident, telling AFP: "There wasn't an issue."

Asked about the incident, Chinese foreign ministry official Zhang Xiaolong told reporters: "It's not true. It's simply not true".

APEC nations usually agree a joint statement but officials are struggling to bridge deep divides on trade policy and admit that a formal communique may not be issued.

This is not the first time Chinese officials have been involved in a tense incident at a regional meeting.

At the Pacific Islands Forum in September, Nauru's president demanded China apologise after its delegation walked out of a meeting when the host refused to let an envoy speak until island leaders had finished.

"They're not our friends. They just need us for their own purposes," President Baron Waqa said at the time.

Map of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, locating main venues for the APEC summit @AFPgraphics pic.twitter.com/OZEEvW5ba9

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 18, 2018

Indian bishop refused bail in nun rape case

Yahoo – AFP, 22 September 2018

The scandal has sparked angry protests by clergy over police inaction

An Indian bishop accused of raping a nun was refused bail Saturday, and ordered to remain in police custody to face questioning in a case that has triggered outrage among clergy.

Bishop Franco Mulakkal was arrested in southern Kerala state on Friday after Pope Francis relieved him from duty over the scandal that has sparked days of angry protests by clergy over police inaction.

Mulakkal, who heads the Roman Catholic diocese of Jalandhar in the northern state of Punjab, is accused of raping the nun 13 times between 2014 and 2016.

The nun, who has not been named, first accused Mulakkal in June but police only started formal questioning this month as fury over the case mounted.

Police asked for more time on Saturday to question the 52-year-old, who has denied the accusations.

In its submission to the court in Kerala, police said Mulakkal had illegally confined the victim in a guesthouse and subjected her "to rape and unnatural sex 13 times in the same room," the Times of India newspaper reported.

Mulakkal has called the scandal a conspiracy by those opposed to the Roman Catholic Church.

The Catholics Bishops' Conference of India has said Mulakkal's arrest was a "sad moment for all of us".

"As said before we expect the law to take its course and for the truth to emerge. At his moment our prayer is for healing," it said in a statement Friday.

Sexual abuse by clergy and the failure of Church officials to take action has been one of the biggest scandals facing Roman Catholicism globally in recent years.

Recently five priests from Kerala, home to India's largest Christian population, were arrested after sexual assault allegations.

Myanmar judge says policeman's 'entrapment' testimony stands

Yahoo – AFP, May 2, 2018

Detained Myanmar journalist Kyaw Soe Oo (C) is escorted by police to court
(AFP Photo/Myo Kyaw SOE)

Yangon (AFP) - A Myanmar court ruled Wednesday that crucial testimony from a whistleblowing policeman in the case against two Reuters journalists is credible, a decision seen as a "ray of light" by the defence.

Reporters Wa Lone, 32 and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, have been in custody since December.

They are accused of violating the country's Official Secrets Act for possessing material linked to security operations in conflict-hit Rakhine state.

The charge carries up to 14 years in prison.

Over months of pre-trial hearings, their defence team has insisted they were set up -- lured to dinner by a police source who handed them documents for which they were subsequently arrested.

Court testimony last month by Deputy Police Major Moe Yan Naing backed up that version of events, even though he had been called as a prosecution witness.

He said a superior ordered his men to set up the sting which resulted in sensitive documents being passed to the reporters.

In response prosecutors asked the court to declare Moe Yan Naing a hostile witness.

But the court found no problems with the police officer's account.

"The court rejects the proposal claiming the law officer to be a hostile witness," Judge Ye Lwin told the hearing Wednesday.

A lawyer for the journalists welcomed the decision.

"I am elated. The court has proved itself as a court of justice," Khin Maung Zaw said. "We have seen a ray of light. It strengthens our case."

The two journalists were also buoyed by the court ruling.

"We are happy about today’s decision. This shows that the truth will come out and proves that we have been treated unfairly," Wa Lone told reporters before they were taken back to prison.

On April 30 the police officer was jailed for breaching a police disciplinary act, a charge he had faced since December for previous communications with Wa Lone.

Police sources said he was sentenced before he gave his shock testimony to court -- an extremely rare instance of a security official openly challenging superiors in the formerly junta-run country.

In addition, the family of Moe Yan Naing was evicted from their police housing a day after he gave evidence. Police denied the two events were connected.

At the time of their arrest, the reporters were investigating the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya men in the village of Inn Din in the north of Rakhine state.

The military has denied allegations of widespread atrocities against the Muslim minority.

But it did concede that security officers took part in the killings at Inn Din which were later reported by Reuters.

Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since the army-led campaign was launched last August, ostensibly to combat Rohingya insurgents.

The stateless group has faced decades of systematic discrimination and persecution in mainly Buddhist Myanmar.

Dutch nationals, one in Nepal, arrested for child sex abuse abroad

DutchNews, November 13, 2017    

Two Dutch nationals have been arrested in connection with a major investigation into child pornography and child abuse abroad, the public prosecution department has confirmed. 

Henk K, who is 75, was arrested in Nepal on Friday and an unnamed 46-year old man was picked up at his home in Zuid-Holland. 

In total, four homes in the Netherlands were raided in connection with the investigation and further arrests have not been ruled out, the department said in a statement. 

Child rights organisation Terres des Hommes is keeping watch on at least 350 Dutch nationals who go on holiday to have sex with children, the Telegraaf said on Monday. Their number include the two men picked up last week, the paper said.

Spokesman Gideon van Aartsen told the Telegraaf that the 350 people came into the spotlight as part of a special cyberspace project and that their online activity is now being monitored. 

‘Child sex tourists have all sorts of friendships in countries where sex tourism is a problem,’ Van Aartsen told the paper. The organisation also says it works with airlines to monitor sex tourists’ travel arrangements. 

According to the Telegraaf, most of the 128 Facebook friends belonging to Henk K, arrested in Nepal at the weekend, are Nepalese teenagers. K, who is 75, has a house in Nepal and has been visiting the country for years. 

The force is female: India's women cops take a stand

Yahoo – AFP, Abhaya SRIVASTAVA, July 25, 2017

All-female police units are shaking up the male-dominated force in conservative
 northwest India, hitting the streets to combat sex crimes and a pervasive culture
of silence around rape

All-female police units are shaking up the male-dominated force in conservative northwest India, hitting the streets to combat sex crimes and a pervasive culture of silence around rape.

One such squad in Jaipur has been patrolling bus stops, colleges and parks where women are vulnerable to sexual harassment.

Women can face a barrage on India's streets, enduring everything from lewd jokes and strangers following them -- often dismissed as innocent "Eve teasing" -- to physical attacks and rape.

"The message we want to send out is that we have zero tolerance towards crimes against women," said Kamal Shekhawat, who heads the specialist Jaipur unit established in late May.

India has a gruesome record on sex crimes, with nearly 40,000 rapes reported every year. But the real figure is thought to be much higher, with victims wary of how their complaints will be dealt with.

India's police force is overwhelmingly male -- women make up just seven percent of officers -- and activists complain that victims are often judged by their appearance, asked probing questions, or even blamed for provoking the crime.

The shame attached to rape in India's deeply patriarchal society, and fear of reprisal, means many sex crimes are not reported and offenders go unpunished.

Shekhawat hopes the visible presence of female officers on the beat will encourage more women in Jaipur to report their abusers knowing they will find a sympathetic ear.

"Women police are more empathetic and victims also feel more confident and are able to communicate openly before them," she said.

"The message we want to send out is that we have zero tolerance towards crimes 

against women," said Kamal Shekhawat, who heads the specialist Jaipur police 

unit established in late May

Boosting confidence

At a park in Jaipur, constable Saroj Chodhuary dismounted from her scooter and approached a group of sari-clad women to introduce herself.

"You can just make a call or even message on WhatsApp and we will be right there," she said, clad in khaki uniform and white helmet as she passed around her details.

"Your identity will not be revealed, so you can feel free to register your complaint. If someone makes cat calls or troubles you in any way, do let us know. Don't take law in your own hands."

The women appear impressed by her authority -- Chodhuary and her colleagues are trained in martial arts and spent months learning the law -- and relieved to know help was just a phone call away.

Radha Jhabua, a 24-year-old mother, said she wanted to complain about a neighbour stalking her but her husband feared it would bring the family a bad name.

"He told me to keep quiet and wait for the man to change his ways. I am glad we can now just send a Whatsapp message to these sisters and they will take care of the rest," she told AFP.

Seema Sahu, a 38-year-old mother of two, said she usually avoided going out at night with her daughters.

"I am so glad now these police women will be on the roads. Their very presence gives us confidence," she said.

India has a gruesome record on sex crimes, with nearly 40,000 rapes reported

 every year. But the real figure is thought to be much higher, with victims wary

of how their complaints will be dealt with

Restoring order

India faced international scrutiny over levels of violence against women following the fatal gang-rape of a medical student in New Delhi in December 2012.

Laws to punish sex offenders were strengthened in the aftermath, but attacks are still widespread. In the capital New Delhi alone there were 2,199 rape cases in 2015 -- an average of six a day.

India's police has been ordered to recruit more female officers so women make up a third of the force.

But so far, their numbers remain low.

The Jaipur unit is just the second in Rajasthan state, with the first established in Udaipur last October.

Police in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh have come under fire for their controversial approach to combat sex-related crimes in the notoriously lawless state.

There officers, including women, patrolling in so-called "anti-Romeo squads" have been accused of harassing unmarried and interfaith couples in an effort to enforce a moral code reflecting Hindu values.

Shekhawat said no such methods would be adopted under her watch.

"We have seen a very good impact and positive results wherever our teams are on patrol," she said.

"It is having a preventive effect. It is restoring the faith of the public in the police which is a must for maintaining law and order."

Men are taking note, too.

"It's a very good move. When a man gets rounded up by these women, others will automatically feel the heat. They will have to mend their ways," said Jaipur resident Ram Lal Gujar.

All-female police units shake up a male-dominated force in northwest India, hitting the streets to combat sex crimes https://t.co/Teo9jVUutV pic.twitter.com/PsreNRerWj

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 25, 2017

Saudi police question woman who wore miniskirt in video

Yahoo – AFP, July 18, 2017

Women in Saudi Arabia are required to wear long black abaya robes and
cover their hair in public (AFP Photo/FAYEZ NURELDINE)

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi police said Tuesday they were questioning a woman who appeared in an online video in a miniskirt and crop top walking through a historic site in the ultraconservative kingdom.

A series of videos, initially posted over the weekend to the Snapchat account of "Model Khulood", show a young woman in a high-waisted miniskirt walking through a fort in Ushaiqer, outside the capital Riyadh, playing with sand in the dunes and turning towards the camera for a close-up, her long hair uncovered.

The videos have since been uploaded to YouTube and tweeted by different users.

Saudi media, including the main dailies Sabq and Okaz, on Tuesday quoted a spokesman for police in Riyadh as saying the woman was being questioned and had confessed to visiting the site with her male guardian.

Saudi Arabia's guardianship system mandates accompaniment by or written permission from a male relative -- usually a father, husband or brother -- for women to study, work or travel.

The woman denied that she had uploaded the clips and that the Snapchat account was hers, the spokesman said.

The case has now been referred to the public prosecutor's office, which will decide whether to prosecute the woman.

The local government of Riyadh had issued a memo saying authorities were searching for the woman who had been "walking around... in indecent clothing".

The snaps have sparked heated debate, with social media users in the region and beyond weighing in on questions of gender and rights in the kingdom, where women are required to wear long black abaya robes and cover their hair in public.

Many have come to the defence of the young woman, pointing out the privileges afforded to Western women by Saudi authorities. US First Lady Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump, daughter of the president, did not cover their hair when they visited Saudi Arabia in May.

"If it were Trump's daughter, we would have braced ourselves for the flood of compliments and love poems," read one tweet.

"Problem solved," tweeted Shahd bint Fahd alongside a picture of the model with Ivanka Trump's face superimposed over the original.

Others expressed outrage and derided those speaking out in support of the model.

"These are the demands of the liberal ignorant community: a naked woman, a co-ed movie theatre, and music and dance. That's progress to them! Not health care and not education," read one tweet.

Philippine Church in 'show of force' against drug killings

Yahoo – AFP, Ayee Macaraig, February 18, 2017

More than 6,000 people have died in the seven months since President
Rodrigo Duterte ordered an unprecedented war on drugs, which has drawn
global criticism for alleged human rights abuses (AFP Photo/NOEL CELIS)

Manila (AFP) - Thousands of Catholic faithful gathered in the Philippine capital on Saturday for a "show of force" in the biggest rally yet to stop extrajudicial killings in President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war.

More than 6,000 people have died since Duterte took office seven months ago and ordered an unprecedented crime war that has drawn global criticism for alleged human rights abuses, but is popular with many in the mainly Catholic country.

Members of one of the nation's oldest and most powerful institutions chanted prayers and sang hymns as they marched to condemn a "spreading culture of violence".

"We have to stand up. Somehow this is already a show of force by the faithful that they don't like these extrajudicial killings," Manila bishop Broderick Pabillo told AFP before addressing the crowd.

"I am alarmed and angry at what's happening because this is something that is regressive. It does not show our humanity."

Duterte, 71, has attacked the Church as "the most hypocritical institution" for speaking out against a campaign that he says would save generations of Filipinos from the drug menace.

About eight in 10 Filipinos are Catholic, making the former Spanish colony of more than 100 million people Asia's bastion of Christianity.

The Church helped lead the revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and a 2001 uprising against then-president Joseph Estrada that saw him ousted over corruption charges.

Thousands of Catholics gather at a dawn rally in a "show of force" against alleged

 extrajudicial killings in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war in Manila on 

February 18, 2017 (AFP Photo/NOEL CELIS)

It had initially declined to voice opposition publicly to Duterte's drug war but, as the death toll of mostly poor people mounted, it began late last year to call for the killings to end.

Saturday's event, called the "Walk for Life", gathered 20,000 people, according to the organisers. Manila police estimated the crowd at 10,000.

The rally also opposed Duterte's push to restore the death penalty, his top legislative priority as part of his crime war.

'Tears and fears'

"It is obvious that there is a spreading culture of violence. It is saddening to see, sometimes it drives me to tears how violent words seem so natural and ordinary," said Manila Cardinal Luis Tagle, the country's highest-ranking Church official.

"In your surroundings, in your neighbourhood, there are so many lives that must be saved. They will not be saved by mere discussion."

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines had called on the faithful to gather at the Quirino Grandstand, where Duterte held a huge pre-election rally, from 4:30am.

"Why dawn? It's because it is during these hours that we find bodies on the streets or near trash cans. Dawn, which is supposed to be the hour of a new start, is becoming an hour of tears and fears," Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the bishops' conference, told the crowd.

Villegas this month issued the Church's strongest statement against the drug war, warning against a "reign of terror" in poor communities.

Officers investigate the killing of two alleged robbers in a gun fight with police
in Manila (AFP Photo/NOEL CELIS)

Among those who attended Saturday's event was Senator Leila de Lima, a former human rights commissioner and one of Duterte's most vocal opponents.

The government on Friday filed charges against her for allegedly running a drug trafficking ring using criminals in the country's largest prison when she was justice secretary in the previous administration.

De Lima, who has repeatedly insisted the charges against her are trumped up to silence her and intimidate other Duterte critics, said she attended Saturday's event as a show of solidarity.

"For as long as I can, I will continue to fight. They cannot silence me," De Lima, who is expecting to be arrested in the coming days, told AFP.

Bone cancer survivor Lucy Castillo, 56, turned up in a wheelchair along with dozens of other people with disabilities.

"When I was in so much pain, I could have taken my life but I did not. Only God can take it," she told AFP.

"I was diagnosed 40 years ago but I was given a chance to live. I want to give these drug addicts another chance."

Duterte executions plan is barbaric: Philippine critics

Yahoo – AFP, December 19, 2016

A Manila crime scene where two alleged drug dealers were gunned down by
unidentified men in October

Philippine Catholic leaders and rights groups on Monday condemned as "barbaric" President Rodrigo Duterte's plan to restore the death penalty and execute "five or six" criminals daily.

Duterte, 71, has made reviving the death penalty in the mainly Catholic nation his top legislative priority as part of a brutal war on crime that has killed 5,300 people.

"There was death penalty before but nothing happened. Return that to me and I would do it every day: five or six (criminals). That's for real," Duterte said Saturday.

An official at the influential Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines said the Church "totally opposed" Duterte's plan.

"The Philippines will be viewed as very barbaric," Father Jerome Secillano, executive secretary at its public affairs office, told AFP.

"It's going to make the Philippines the capital of death penalty in the world."

The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 2006 following fierce opposition to the penalty from the Catholic Church, the religion of 80 percent of Filipinos.

Before assuming office in June, Duterte vowed to introduce executions by hanging, saying he did not want to waste bullets and believed snapping the spinal cord was more humane than a firing squad.

Duterte said he viewed the death penalty not as a means to deter crime but for retribution.

Rodrigo Duterte shows images of allegedly criminal Philippine politicians at

a meeting with the Filipino community in Singapore on December 16, 2016

His allies in the House of Representatives quickly pushed for the bill and said they would vote on it by January.

The United Nations' human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said in a letter to the Philippine congress this month that reviving the death penalty would violate the country's international obligations.

But on Saturday Duterte insisted executions were necessary to fight the drug scourge which he said was "destroying" the nation.

While his aides dismiss his incendiary statements as hyperbole, rights advocates said Duterte's remarks were alarming.

"Setting a quota for executions is just too much. One death is too much because we are talking about lives," Amnesty International Philippines vice chairman Romeo Cabarde told AFP.

Catholic leaders and rights defenders have instead urged the government to reform a slow and corrupt justice system which they said was likely to send innocent people to death row.

Secillano said bishops planned to dissuade lawmakers from voting for the death penalty and would attend congressional debates next month.

Fear of killings

Duterte's crime war has drawn international criticism from the United States and United Nations over concerns about alleged extrajudicial killings and a breakdown in the rule of law.

Duterte won May elections in a landslide on a promise to eradicate drugs in society -- a mandate he often cited to defend his controversial campaign.

Catholic nuns oppose extra-judicial killings at a Human Rights Day rally

in Manila on December 10, 2016

A survey by Social Weather Stations released Monday showed while a majority backed Duterte's drug war, 78 percent of Filipinos were worried that they or someone in their family would be a victim of extrajudicial killings.

The survey also showed 71 percent said it was "very important" that police keep drug suspects they arrested alive.

Police have repeatedly said they only shot at criminals who fought back but the nation's rights agency has questioned this argument and has begun investigating cases.

On Monday, Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa apologised for police killings of criminal suspects but insisted these were done in self-defence.

"Lord, I hope you forgive us even if the ones we kill are bad people," Dela Rosa said during the police's Christmas party.

"If the life of a policeman will be lost just to preserve the life of a criminal, that's a great injustice."

Dela Rosa added Duterte gave police hefty bonuses for leading the crime war.

Related Articles:

Death penalty may be on the way out in US: report

The days of capital punishment may be numbered in the United States, according to a report from @DPInfoCtr https://t.co/xVmiV1VTDj pic.twitter.com/P6WgjYnSqy

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 21, 2016