Rodrigo Duterte’s Talk of Killing Criminals Raises Fears in Philippines

19duterte-web1-master768-v4DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The police warned 14-year-old Bobby Alia that there would be consequences after he was accused of stealing a cellphone in November 2003, the boy’s mother said. A few days later he was dead, stabbed in the back with a butcher knife.

He was the third of Clarita Alia’s sons to die in Davao, the southern Philippines’ largest city, in killings that remain unsolved. A fourth was killed in 2007. All had been accused of crimes, all were stabbed and all, Ms. Alia said, had received similar warnings from the police.

For years, rights groups have called for an investigation into whether Davao’s mayor, Rodrigo Duterte — the tough-talking politician who next month will become president of the Philippines — was complicit in the killings of hundreds of people in Davao since the 1980s by what they describe as government-sanctioned death squads.  Continue reading…

Philippine president-elect Duterte vows to kill criminals

4ddf6f7ff6e0eb39b3ff052e685f8b172f337b7e-cfPhilippines’ president-elect Rodrigo Duterte vowed Sunday to reintroduce capital punishment and give security forces “shoot-to-kill” orders in a devastating war on crime.

In his first press conference since winning the May 9 elections in a landslide, the tough-talking mayor of southern Davao city warned his campaign threats to kill were not rhetoric.

“What I will do is urge Congress to restore (the) death penalty by hanging,” Duterte, 71, told a press conference in Davao.

He also said he would give security forces “shoot-to-kill” orders against organised criminals or those who violently resisted arrest.  Source

Child sex abuse victim in 20s euthanised after suffering irreparable PTSD

rape-victim-jailed-extra-marital-sexA victim of childhood sex abuse was allowed to end her life under Dutch euthanasia laws after doctors and psychiatrists concluded that the woman’s post-traumatic stress disorder and physical health were incurable. The death of the Dutch woman in her 20s has fuelled the ongoing debate on the ethics of euthanasia in Britain, with some MPs arguing that allowing a victim of sex abuse to die is equivalent to punishing the victim.

The details of the case were documented by the Dutch Euthanasia Commission, which revealed that the woman began to suffer from mental disorders about 15 years ago. She was suffering from severe anorexia, chronic depression, suicidal mood swings, tendencies to self-harm, hallucinations, obsessions and compulsions. She was also almost entirely bedridden, according to a report.  Source

Pentagon: Sexual assault cases in the military remain constant

160320121445-pentagon-2011-exlarge-169Washington (CNN)  The number of individuals reporting cases of sexual assault in the military dropped slightly in 2015, though the reporting rate stayed the same, according to the Pentagon.

A new Defense Department report released Thursday found that a total of 6,083 reports of sexual assault involving military service members were received during the year, 48 lower than the 6,131 in 2014.  Source

German couple tortured two women to death, police say

89550128_1d3ef764-edbd-4b29-896a-5b35042f24c1Police in Germany investigating the deaths of two women say they were the victims of a couple who held them hostage and tortured them.

They say a man and his ex-wife placed dating advertisements to lure the women to their home.

The suspects – Wilfried W, 46, and Angelika B, 47 – were arrested last Wednesday and charged with manslaughter.

The man denies any wrongdoing but his partner is reported to have confessed. Source