Month: April 2022

New demands to free Philippine opposition Senator Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, escalated after the government’s star witness recanted his statements, saying the police pressured him to lie.

De Lima has been languishing in jail for five years over what human rights groups believe to be fabricated charges meant to silence her after she launched an investigation into Duterte’s war on drugs in 2016. She is seeking reelection from a custodial center of the Philippine police.

In 2014, De Lima was the late President Benigno Aquino III’s justice secretary when she led a crackdown that exposed the luxurious lifestyle of convicted drug lords in the country’s most-secure prison.

But the narrative flipped when De Lima caught the ire of Duterte for investigating his war on drugs and his involvement in the extrajudicial killings in Davao City, his hometown. Before becoming president, Duterte served as mayor of Davao City for decades.

Self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, who was arrested in Abu Dhabi in 2016, has alleged he paid De Lima drug money and contributed to her senatorial campaign in 2016.

But five years later, Espinosa apologized to De Lima in a court document made public Thursday. He said he had no choice but to “invent stories” as he was coerced by the police.

“[A]ny and all of his statements given during the Senate hearings, or in the form of sworn written affidavits, against Senator Leila De Lima are not true. He has no dealings with Sen. De Lima and has not given her any money at any given time,” a counter-affidavit signed by Espinosa read.

“Any statement he made against the Senator are [sic] false and was the result only of pressure, coercion, intimidation, and serious threats to his life and family members from the police who instructed him to implicate the Senator into the illegal drug trade,” it added.

De Lima said she has forgiven those who were used by the government to pin her down, and she urged others to follow Espinosa’s example.

“I am urging everyone who took part in the cruelty against me to follow suit and reveal all they know. The truth is coming out. Justice is getting close. My wish: To make those behind this accountable,” she said in a dispatch Friday from her detention cell.

Brazen injustice

Her supporters said the recantation highlights the grave injustice suffered by De Lima under Duterte. They are drumming up calls from local and international rights organizations to release the jailed senator.

Antonio La Viña, a constitutional law professor and legal adviser to De Lima, said the recent development was good for De Lima, as she could be released in a matter of time, but he was sad for the country’s justice system.

“We should learn a lesson from this. Don’t use politics. Don’t use the law. Don’t weaponize the law for political reasons. Why is De Lima in prison, detained? Because President Duterte got mad at her for investigating the war against drugs,” La Viña told VOA.

He said De Lima could have done Duterte a favor if the Senate hearings on the war on drugs continued. Duterte faces a “crimes against humanity” complaint before the International Criminal Court for thousands of Filipinos killed in a crackdown that he allegedly sanctioned.

Free De Lima

Despite the recantation, which critics said proved Duterte’s vindictiveness, his office maintains it won’t affect the pending charges against De Lima.

“While Kerwin Espinosa appears to have recanted his allegations against Senator Leila de Lima, his recantation will not have any effect on the pending criminal cases against the lady senator,” Martin Andanar, acting spokesperson for Duterte, said.

De Lima is still facing two drug charges after she won one of the cases in February last year.

Butch Olano, Philippine director of Amnesty International, said De Lima is a victim of political persecution.

“Following this retraction, the government must immediately and unconditionally release her and hold accountable those responsible for her unjust detention and the various human rights violations she has had to endure,” Olano said in a statement.

The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), a group of Southeast Asian lawmakers who advance human rights and democracy, has launched a social media campaign urging Philippine presidential candidates “to immediately and unconditionally drop all the trumped-up charges against Senator De Lima.”

“There cannot be any doubt of Senator De Lima’s innocence, as well as her commitment to democracy and human rights. Releasing her should be one of the first priorities of the next president if they want to restore a modicum of justice and rule of law in the government of the country,” Charles Santiago, a member of APHR said.

Candidates in the upcoming national elections are echoing calls to release De Lima. They include presidential candidate Ka Leody de Guzman, vice presidential candidate and Senator Francis Pangilinan, human rights lawyer and senatorial candidate Chel Diokno, and Senator Risa Hontiveros, who is seeking a reelection.

Presidential candidate and Vice President Leni Robredo, who picked De Lima in her senatorial slate, has previously called for her release.

Reelection

Despite being incarcerated, De Lima has exercised her duties as a legislator. She has authored bills and resolutions from her detention cell in Manila, though she has been prevented from conducting live hearings.

De Lima has consistently voiced opposition against Duterte through regular dispatches from her cell.

In next month’s election, she is seeking reelection and has largely campaigned through pre-recorded video campaign messages played at Vice President Leni Robredo’s rallies, as a life-size printed standee is placed by her staff on stage.

“I think it will bolster her chances, seeing just in the last couple of days they’ve realized how bad, how terrible the injustice has been done,” La Viña said, adding that De Lima is one of the best lawyers in the country.

Opinion polls do not indicate De Lima will win reelection.

Source: Voice of America

Serbia on Saturday showed off its new Chinese-made surface-to-air missiles and other military hardware purchased from both Russia and the West, as the country seeks to perform a delicate balancing act over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Members of the public and the media were invited to the display at the Batajnica military airfield near Belgrade, where Chinese and French missiles were lined up beside European Airbus helicopters, Chinese-armed drones and Russian MIG-29 jets.

Serbia is striving to balance its partnership with NATO and aspirations to join the European Union with its centuries-old religious, ethnic and political alliance with Russia.

The Chinese FK-3 surface-to-air defense system, similar to Russia’s S-300 or the U.S. Patriot system, was purchased by Belgrade in 2019 and delivered earlier this month.

Serbia is the only European country to operate the Chinese missile system and CH-92A combat drones.

President Aleksandar Vucic toured Saturday’s display flanked by military commanders and watched an aerobatics show featuring overhauled MIG-29 jets donated by Russia in 2017.

“I’m proud of the Serbian army, I’m proud of a great progress,” Vucic told a news conference. “We’re going to significantly strengthen our fighter air force … Serbia is a neutral country and Serbia must find solutions enabling it to preserve its sky and its state.”

The delivery of the FK-3 missile system prompted several Western countries, including Germany, to warn Belgrade it expected the Balkan country to align its foreign policy with the EU if it wanted to become a member.

Belgrade has voted against Russia three times at the United Nations but stopped short of imposing sanctions against it.

Serbia’s military is loosely based on ex-Soviet technology and Russia is one of its main suppliers. Belgrade is also dependent on natural gas and oil supplies from Russia.

Vucic said Serbia expects to purchase 12 Rafale multipurpose fighter jets from France by the end of the year or early next year, a move seen by political analysts as a sign of Belgrade distancing itself from Russia.

He said Serbia is also negotiating to buy 12 Typhoon combat aircraft from Britain.

Source: Voice of America

Learning to identify and defuse explosives is something Anastasiia Minchukova never thought she would have to do as an English teacher in Ukraine. Yet there she was wearing a face shield, armed with a landmine detector and venturing into a field dotted with danger warnings.

Russia’s war in Ukraine took Minchukova, 20, and five other women to Kosovo, where they are attending a hands-on course in clearing landmines and other dangers that may remain hidden across their country once combat ends.

“There is a huge demand on people who know how to do demining because the war will be over soon,” Minchukova said. “We believe there is so much work to be done.”

The 18-day training camp takes place at a range in the western town of Peja where a Malta-based company regularly offers courses for job-seekers, firms working in former war zones, humanitarian organizations and government agencies.

Kosovo was the site of a devastating 1998-99 armed conflict between ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbian forces that killed about 13,000 people and left thousands of unexploded mines in need of clearing. Praedium Consulting Malta’s range includes bombed and derelict buildings as well as expanses of vegetation.

Instructor Artur Tigani, who tailored the curriculum to reflect Ukraine’s environment, said he was glad to share his small Balkan nation’s experience with the Ukrainian women. Though 23 years have passed, “it’s still fresh in our memories, the difficulties we met when we started clearance in Kosovo,” Tigani said.

Tigani is a highly trained and experienced mine operations officer who served as an engineer in the former Yugoslav army during the 1980s. He has been deployed in his native Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Congo, Rwanda and Kenya, and conducted training missions in Syria and Iraq.

During a class last week, he took his trainees through a makeshift minefield before moving to an improvised outdoor classroom featuring a huge board with various samples of explosives and mines.

While it is impossible to assess how littered with mines and unexploded ordnance Ukraine is at the moment, the aftermaths of other conflicts suggest the problem will be huge.

“In many parts of the world, explosive remnants of war continue to kill and maim thousands of civilians each year during and long after active hostilities have ended. The majority of victims are children,” the International Committee of the Red Cross testified at a December U.N. conference.

“Locating (unexploded ordnance) in the midst of rubble and picking them out from among a wide array of everyday objects, many of which are made of similar material is a dangerous, onerous and often extremely time-consuming task,” the Red Cross said.

Mine Action Review, a Norwegian organization that monitors clearance efforts worldwide, reported that 56 countries were contaminated with unexploded ordnance as of October, with Afghanistan, Cambodia and Iraq carrying the heaviest burdens, followed by Angola, Bosnia, Thailand, Turkey and Yemen.

Thousands of civilians are believed to have died in Ukraine since Russia invaded Feb. 24. Russian forces have bombed cities and towns across the country, reducing many to rubble.

Military analysts say it appears Russian forces have employed anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines, while Ukraine has used anti-tank mines to try to prevent the Russians from gaining ground.

With Ukrainian men from 18 to 60 years old prohibited from leaving their country and most engaged in defending it, the women wanted to help any way they could despite the risks involved in mine clearing.

“It’s dangerous all over Ukraine, even if you are in a relatively safe region,” said Minchukova, who is from central Ukraine.

Another Ukrainian student, Yuliia Katelik, 38, took her three children to safety in Poland early in the war. She went back to Ukraine and then joined the demining training to help make sure it’s safe for her children when they return home to the eastern city of Kramatorsk, where a rocket attack on a crowded train station killed more than 50 people this month.

Katelik said her only wish is to reunite with her family and see “the end of this nightmare.” Knowing how to spot booby-traps that could shatter their lives again is a necessary skill, she said.

“Acutely, probably as a mother, I do understand that there is a problem and it’s quite serious, especially for the children,” Katelik said.

Minchukova, wearing military-style clothes, said she was doubtful that normal life, as they all knew it before the war, would ever fully return.

“What am I missing? Peace,” she said. “I’m dreaming about peace, about sleeping in my bed not worried about going to bomb shelters all the time. I miss the people I lost.”

The Kosovo training center plans to work with more groups of Ukrainian women, both in Peja and in Ukraine.

“We’re planning as well to go to Ukraine very soon and start with delivery of courses there, on the theater” of war, Tigani said.

Source: Voice of America