June 11
PHILIPPINES:
6 on death row get reprieve
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has given a 90-day reprieve to 6
convicted rapists who were scheduled to be executed this month, her
spokesman said Thursday.
Papers deferring the executions of the 6 men on death row were being
readied, spokesman Ignacio Bunye said, adding, "... the scheduled
execution of the rape convicts has been put off for 90 days."
Bunye did not say why Arroyo had deferred the executions, to be carried
out be lethal injection.
In December she declared the end of a 4-year-old moratorium on the death
penalty in order to curtail violence and crime.
No executions have taken place since then as the Supreme Court in January
granted a reprieve to 2 convicted kidnappers so their cases could be
reopened.
(source: Agence France Press)
IRAQ:
Death penalty on premier's security agenda ----He also suggests
reconstituting intelligence police
Iraq's newly appointed prime minister is moving to resurrect domestic
intelligence services and may reinstitute the death penalty as ways to
combat the country's persistent lawlessness and violence.
Iyad Allawi, a onetime member of Iraq's Baath Party who became a CIA-
backed opponent of Saddam Hussein's government, said Thursday that the
interim government has already begun reconstituting an Iraqi intelligence
service and hopes to build an anti-terrorism unit.
"We need to reconstitute or build an internal security apparatus similar
to (Britain's) MI5 or the FBI, which has the power of interrogation and
detention," Allawi told a small group of reporters at a party honoring
Iraqi women Thursday night.
He also confirmed that ministers in his interim government, appointed June
1, were considering reviving capital punishment as a step toward combating
"the evil forces trying to spread their poison and damage Iraqi society."
The death penalty was suspended in April 2003 by U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks,
who was head of Central Command, as the U.S.-led coalition invaded the
country and toppled Hussein's government.
In an interview earlier this week, newly appointed interim Justice
Minister Malek Dohan al-Hassan suggested re-establishing the death penalty
as a way to deter criminals and terrorists. But human rights activists and
others have complained that the unelected government has no authority to
make such a drastic move.
Allawi, who spent 22 years in exile organizing former members of the Baath
Party to fight Hussein, outlined his vision for a democratic, federal
government allied closely with the United States on foreign policy
matters. He played down recent reports of rifts between Iraq's Kurds and
Shiite Arabs, who have both complained that they do not have enough power
in deciding the future of Iraq's government.
"All Iraqis of the various constituencies feel insecure one way or
another," he said in fluent English. "I think it is the role of the new
government of Iraq really to play a significant role in ensuring all
sections of the new Iraq that this is a new Iraq where all constituencies
are going to be respected."
Allawi emerged as the favorite of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing
Council last month. The United States and United Nations eventually gave
his caretaker government their blessing. His Cabinet must prepare for
nationwide elections by January to seat a new Iraqi government.
Allawi deftly worked the crowd at the party at the home of Bakhtiar Amin,
the new minister of human rights.
With the cameras and lights of Arab television networks trained on him, he
vowed that his government would safeguard women's rights, but he ducked
questions about Islamic traditionalists' demands for a stronger role in
the future government, noting that senior clerics already are involved in
all aspects of Iraqi life.
He stressed repeatedly that the country's security was paramount on his
agenda.
Allawi has long said he planned to reconstitute 5 divisions of the old
Iraqi Army. On Thursday, he said he hoped to welcome armed tribesman and
former members of militias into the ranks.
He also said he would reintegrate 40 to 55 % of the old Iraqi Army, which
was dissolved in a May 2003 proclamation by U.S. administrator Paul
Bremer, into a new armed forces dedicated to protecting the country from
foreign encroachments.
Earlier in the day, Allawi issued a statement condemning saboteurs who
attack Iraq's energy infrastructure. He said more than 130 attacks on the
oil industry over the last 7 months had cost Iraqis $200 million in
revenues.
Iraq's persistent security woes have hampered reconstruction efforts. The
capital still gets electricity for only about 12 hours a day. Power and
fuel shortages have frayed nerves and soured many on the U.S.-led
occupation.
Attacks on foreigners working to rebuild Iraq have scared off contractors
and sent the costs of doing business in Iraq spiraling higher.
(source: San Francisco Chronicle)
