News Report: UN Chief Urges 'Swift Action' to Alleviate Suffering of Myanmar Muslims

Margaret Besheer

UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Thursday for "swift action" to halt the deteriorating situation in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State, where a half million mostly Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighboring Bangladesh in the past month.

"The situation has spiraled into the world’s fastest developing refugee emergency; a humanitarian and human rights nightmare," Guterres told an open meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

The council has privately discussed the situation three times in the past month, but Thursday’s session was the first time since 2009 that it has publicly discussed Myanmar.

Guterres called for an end to the military’s operations; unhindered aid access; and the safe and voluntary return of refugees to their areas of origin.

"There seems to be a deeply disturbing pattern to the violence and ensuing large movements of an ethnic group from their homes," Guterres said.

Guterres and his human rights commissioner have both expressed concerns that what is happening in Rakhine State is ethnic cleansing.

The secretary-general said the core problem is the prolonged statelessness of the Rohingya and its associated discrimination. "The Muslims of Rakhine State should be granted nationality," Guterres said.

The Rohingya are one of many ethnic minorities in the Buddhist-majority nation. They are considered to be economic migrants from Bangladesh and have been denied citizenship, even though most can show that their families have been in the country for generations.

News Story: HRW slams Duterte remarks on shooting rights advocates

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte

By Audrey Morallo

MANILA, Philippines — New York-based Human Rights Watch on Thursday slammed President Rodrigo Duterte for threatening to have human rights activists shot if they get in the way of police operations, saying these remarks could pave the way for prosecution for crimes against humanity.

The chief executive should immediately withdraw his statement or face the specter of an investigation into for possibly instigating the harming of human rights workers, the human rights watchdog said.

“President Duterte’s threats against human rights activists is like painting a target on the backs of courageous people working to protect the rights and upholding the dignity of all Filipinos,” the deputy Asia director of the rights body, Phelim Kine, said.

Kine added: “Duterte should retract his reprehensible remarks immediately before there is more blood on his hands.”

The official said that Duterte’s threats, issued a day after one of the bloodiest days in the president’s brutal and ruthless campaign against illegal narcotics, could serve as a basis for indictment for crimes against humanity.

During a speech before members of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, Duterte vented anew his anger at human rights activists over their investigations into possible rights abuses surrounding his drug war, his flagship security program.

“One of these days, kayong human rights, kayong imbestigahan ko. Conspiracy. If they are obstructing justice, you shoot them,” the hot-tempered Duterte said.

("One of these days, you have human rights, I'll investigate you. Conspiracy. If they are obstructing justice, you shoot them" [Translation: Google Translate]) the hot-tempered Duterte said.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Report: Daesh, Taliban Reportedly Joined Forces to Commit Afghan Village Massacre

Last week's violent attack on a village in Afghanistan's northern Sare Pol province was carried out jointly by militants of Daesh and Taliban terror groups, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said. The two terrorist groups have so far used to fight against each other.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The attack on Mirza Olang village took place on August 4. After two days of fighting with the government forces, the militants took control over the village, leaving 60 civilians dead and eight others injured, as well as 471 families displaced.

"Evidence shows that this brutal crime has been committed by the Taliban in collusion with the ISIS [Daesh] group. According to eyewitnesses, the attack was led by Mullah Nader, local commander of the Taliban and Ghazanfar, local commander of the ISIS group. Taliban has already claimed responsibility for the attack," the reports showed.

News Story: Visiting EU, Suu Kyi Refuses UN Probe Into Alleged Myanmar War Crimes

Henry Ridgwell

LONDON — Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has again refused to allow a United Nations probe into alleged atrocities against minority Rohingya Muslims in the east of the country, despite pressure from the European Union and human rights organizations.

“Those recommendations which will divide further the two communities in Rakhine we will not accept, because it will not help us to resolve the problems that are arising all the time,” Suu Kyi told reporters Tuesday following meetings with European Union chiefs in Brussels.

She denied she was ignoring the allegations of crimes against humanity.

“We have not in any way ignored allegations of rape or murder or arson or anything," she said. "We have asked that these be placed before a court and tried.”

Myanmar's military has long been accused of carrying out widespread killing, torture and rape.

News Story: Duterte hesitant on US visit, warm on China

President Rodrigo Duterte

Davao, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday he may turn down an invitation by Donald Trump to visit the United States, as he welcomed three Chinese warships to his home town.

Duterte, who has loosened the Philippines' long alliance with the United States while strengthening ties with China and Russia, said he could not commit to the American president because of a busy schedule that included a trip to Moscow.

"I am tied up. I cannot make any definite promise. I am supposed to go to Russia, I am supposed to go to Israel," he told reporters when asked about Trump's invitation made in a telephone call on Saturday.

Duterte expressed concerns about not being able to fit in a visit to Trump even though no firm date has yet been proposed for it.

Nevertheless, Duterte said relations with the United States were improving now that Trump had taken over from Barack Obama, who criticised the Philippine president for his anti-drug war that has claimed thousands of lives.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Story: Duterte - ICC has no jurisdiction over me

By Audrey Morallo

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said that the International Criminal Court does not have jurisdiction on the crimes he was accused of committing, his first reaction to the communication filed by a Philippine lawyer at the Hague moving for his investigation and possible prosecution.

In an interview with reporters, Duterte said that one of the fundamental principles of the Philippine criminal code is territoriality. This means that an accused can be prosecuted only in the territory where the alleged crime was committed, according to Duterte.

“The fundamental thing in our Revised Penal Code is territoriality. You can only be prosecuted in the country where you committed the crime,” the president said. “What are the features of our criminal system? One is territoriality.”

According to the ICC, it has jurisdiction if "the crimes were committed by a State Party national, or in the territory of a State Party, or in a State that has accepted the jurisdiction of the Court." The Philippines ratified the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court in 2011.

"The Philippines, a democracy that champions international law and the rule of law, views being party to the Rome Statute of the ICC as a vital part of the on-going global campaign to end impunity and violence against individuals and to further strengthen a rules-based international system, specifically in relation to international human rights law and humanitarian law," Philippine Permanent Representative Ambassador Libran Cabactulan said when the Philippines deposited the instruments of ratification of the Rome Statute that year.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Story: Palace on ICC case - Black propaganda

By Alexis Romero

MANILA, Philippines - Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo yesterday dismissed the complaint filed against President Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC) as mere “black propaganda.”

Panelo said that “apparently, the intention” is to hit Duterte with “black propaganda… hoping that media worldwide would catch on and paint the President as a murderer when in fact, he’s only doing his constitutional duty to protect and preserve this country. It will fail in making the people believe in the validity of the charge.”

Malacañang also claimed that the ICC complaint was meant to “shame” Duterte as the Philippines hosts the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit this week.

“The timing of the filing of the case is suspect – apparently meant to create negative news in the midst of the Philippines' ASEAN (hosting),” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a statement. 

“The intent of this filing in ICC is clearly to embarrass and shame the President, and undermine the duly constituted government of the Philippines,” he added. 

The lawyer of self-confessed hit man Edgar Matobato has asked the ICC to hold Duterte and other officials accountable for “crimes against humanity” that stemmed from the government’s war on drugs.

Read the full story at PhilStar

--

Related Story: FULL TEXT: Criminal complaint filed vs Duterte before the International Criminal Court

News Story: Criminal case vs Duterte filed before International Criminal Court

By Patricia Lourdes Viray

MANILA, Philippines (Second update 5:32 p.m.) — The lawyer of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato on Monday filed a complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte and 11 other government officials before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Lawyer Jude Sabio accused Duterte of being a "mass murderer" and asked the international court to prosecute him over his involvement in the so-called Davao Death Squad.

"Your favourable action on this matter would not only serve the noble ends of international criminal justice but would also be the beginning of the end of this dark, obscene, murderous and evil era in the Philippines," Sabio told the court in his cover letter.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Report: Rohingya Activist ‘Disappointed’ in Myanmar Leader Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi

The director general of an international coalition of 61 Rohingya organizations said he was “disappointed” at Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi for saying ethnic cleansing was “too strong” a term to describe what was happening in the Muslim-majority Rakhine region.

Wakar Uddin also called on her to reinstate a pre-independence system that showed Rohingya’s citizenship.

“I was very disappointed,” said Uddin of the Arakan Rohingya Union. “I can understand why she said that because she’s the head of state. If she admits it is ethnic cleansing, and for that matter genocide, there will be consequences from the international community.”

BBC televised a rare interview with the Myanmar’s state counselor on Wednesday. Attacks on Myanmar border guard posts in October last year by a previously unknown insurgent group set off the biggest crisis of Aung San Suu Kyi's year in power. More than 75,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in the ensuing army crackdown.

"I don't think there is ethnic cleansing going on," Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said of the situation in Rakhine state. "I think ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression to use for what is happening."

"It is not just a matter of ethnic cleansing,” she said. “It is a matter of people on different sides of a divide, and this divide we are trying to close up as best as possible and not to widen it further.”

"What we are trying to go for is reconciliation, not condemnation," Aung San Suu Kyi told the BBC. "It is Muslims killing Muslims as well."

News Report: UN Report Warns Myanmar May Try to Expel Rohingya

Lisa Schlein

GENEVA — A new report presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council accuses Myanmar of “institutionalized discrimination and long-standing persecution” of its mainly Muslim Rohingya population amid appeals by a government representative to the international community to support Myanmar “in its efforts to promote democracy and human rights.”

While Yanghee Lee, special investigator on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, acknowledged the new government has been in power for barely one year, she noted that there were a great many human rights violations that could not wait to be addressed and needed immediate attention.

Lee cited reprisals against human rights defenders and the suppression of voices of dissent through arrest and imprisonment as main concerns. She said she had never “felt more anxiety over potential acts of retaliation and reprisal” than in Rakhine State during her visit to Myanmar in January.

Lee’s assessment follows another report issued by the U.N. human rights office on February 3, which documented acts of cruelty, by Myanmar’s security forces, triggered by the October 9 killing of nine police officers by armed men who attacked three border guard police facilities in Rakhine.

News Report: Experts - N. Korea Must Be Held Accountable for Crimes Against Humanity

North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un

Lisa Schlein

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — A group of independent experts is calling for the government of North Korea to be brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague for gross violations of human rights, including crimes against humanity.

The experts, who submitted their report to the U.N. Human Rights Council Monday, said the government has done nothing to end the widespread and systematic violations committed against its population since a U.N. commission of inquiry issued a damning report documenting horrific cases of abuse in that country in February 2014.

The experts said they used “the commission of inquiry report as a basis” on issues of accountability for human rights violations in DPRK (Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea) especially “where such violations amount to crimes against humanity.”

Sara Hossain, a legal expert from Bangladesh, told the council that it was the primary duty of the government itself “to bring perpetrators of violations in the country to account.”

Since that had not been done and “given the lack of impartiality and independence of the judiciary,” she said the only recourse was to seek justice in the international arena.

“In these circumstances, we call on the international community to continue to pursue a referral of the situation in the DPRK to the International Criminal Court.”

In view of the large number of reported crimes and perpetrators, she said, “We also recommend that other criminal accountability processes be undertaken. The groundwork for future criminal trials should be laid now.”

The U.N. experts also recommended the establishment of an ad hoc international tribunal, “which could act as a deterrent for future crimes.”

News Story: Lawyer - Possible ICC case vs Duterte can be grounds for impeachment

By Patricia Lourdes Viray

MANILA, Philippines — The case to be filed before the International Criminal Court (ICC) can be an added basis for a possible impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte, a lawyer said.

Jude Sabio, legal counsel of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, earlier confirmed that he is scheduled to file a case of crimes against humanity against the president for his supposed liability for the extrajudicial killings of drug offenders

In a telephone interview with philstar.com, Sabio said that the testimonies of Matobato and former SPO3 Arthur Lascañas would be enough to prove the existence of the so-called Davao Death Squad (DDS).

"As testified by Matobato, more than a thousand nameless persons were killed in Davao like chickens and this is also confirmed by Matobato so basically that will be the main thrust of the complaint. It's now easy to prove the pattern because we now have the testimony of Edgar Matobato and the corroborative testimony of Lascañas," Sabio told philstar.com

An ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had earlier expressed concern over the fact that Philippine officials seem to condone alleged extrajudicial killings and seem to encourage the police and civilians to continue targeting drug suspects.

Bensouda said that extrajudicial killings may fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC if they are committed as a part of a widespread attack against a civilian population pursuant to a government policy.

"Let me be clear: any person in the Philippines who incites or engages in acts of mass violence including by ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing, in any other manner, to the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC is potentially liable to prosecution before the Court," Bensouda said in a statement released on Oct. 13, 2016.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Story: Matobato lawyer to file criminal case vs Duterte in international court

By Patricia Lourdes Viray

MANILA, Philippines — The lawyer of self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato confirmed that he is set to file a criminal case against President Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged involvement in the so-called Davao Death Squad.

Lawyer Jude Sabio said that the testimonies of Matobato and former SPO3 Arthur Lascañas in previous Senate hearings would be enough to pin down the president for crimes against humanity.

"Their testimonies, which corroborate each other to prove that in Davao City when Duterte was still mayor, it was his policy or strategy to kill suspected criminals in order to control crime," Sabio said in a telephone interview with Philstar.com

Sabio is scheduled to fly to The Hague, Netherlands by the end of March or the first week of April to file the case before the international court

The lawyer noted that the testimonies of Matobato and Lascañas would prove a pattern that what happened in Davao City during Duterte's term is happening in the country today.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Story: Human rights report holds Rody liable for EJKs

By Rhodina Villanueva

MANILA, Philippines - The group Human Rights Watch has accused President Duterte of instigating and inciting the killings of mostly urban poor members in his war against drugs, a condition that can be considered a crime against humanity. 

“His first six months in office has been a human rights calamity for the Philippines,” read the background portion of the 117-page report titled “License to Kill: Philippine Police Killings in Duterte’s War on Drugs.”

“As president, Duterte has a legal responsibility to publicly direct state security forces to end their campaign of extrajudicial executions of suspected drug dealers and users,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch and author of the report.

“Duterte and his chief subordinates could be held criminally liable in the Philippines or by a court abroad for their role in these killings. No evidence thus far shows that Duterte planned or ordered specific extrajudicial killings, but his repeated calls for killings as part of his anti-drug campaign could constitute acts instigating law enforcement to commit murder. His statements encouraging the general population to commit vigilante violence against suspected drug users could be criminal incitement,” the New York-based group pointed out in the report.

It added, “Duterte, senior officials and others implicated in unlawful killings could also be held liable for crimes against humanity, which are serious offenses committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population. The numerous and seemingly organized deadly attacks on the publicly targeted group of drug suspects could amount to crimes against humanity as defined by the International Criminal Court, of which the Philippines is a member.”

“The United Nations should urgently create an independent, international investigation into the killings to determine responsibility and ensure mechanisms for accountability,” it also said.

Read the full story at PhilStar

News Story: HRW - Duterte could be charged with crimes vs humanity

President Rodrigo Duterte

By Audrey Morallo

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte could be held liable for crimes against humanity for abetting an atmosphere of death that has killed thousands in his campaign to rid the country of illegal drugs, according to a report by an international human rights group.

In its report “License to Kill,” Human Rights Watch criticized the president and his senior government officials for what it said is their culpability in drug-related killings that have left more than 7,000 people dead.

Although there was is no evidence so far that the chief executive himself planned or ordered specific extrajudicial killings, the group believes that there are sufficient grounds for Duterte, Philippine National Police Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, Solictor General Jose Calida and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to be held criminally responsible.

“Even if not directly involved in any specific operations to summarily execute any specific individual, President Duterte appears to have instigated unlawful acts by the police, incited citizens to commit serious violence, and made himself criminal liable under international law for the unlawful killings as a matter of command responsibility,” HRW said in its report.

Read the full story at PhilStar