MANILA, Philippines, Aug 19, (AP): Immigration authorities at Manila’s air-port intercepted 177 Indonesians carrying Philippine passports before they boarded a flight Friday to Saudi Arabia.

Five Filipinos escorting the Indonesians on a hajj pilgrimage were also apprehended as the passengers were about to leave for M e d i n a , I m m i g r a t i o n C o m m i s s i o n e r Jaime Morente said.

The real but f r a u d u l e n t l y obtained passports were allegedly provid-ed by the group’s Filipino escorts, Morente said. The Indonesians allegedly

paid $6,000 to$10,000 each to join the pilgrimage under a quota the Saudi gov-ernment reserves for Filipino pilgrims.

The immigration chief said the passen-gers’ identities were revealed because they could not speak any Philippine lan-guage or dialect. They later admitted to be Indonesians who arrived in the country separately as tourists.

Morente ordered the immediate filing of immigration charges against them for misrepresenting themselves as Filipinos and for being undesirable aliens. They are being detained at the bureau’s detention center in suburban Taguig City.

The bureau is coordinating with the Indonesian Embassy to establish their identities prior to deportation, and with the Department of Foreign Affairs and other law enforcement agencies in investi-gating the fraudulent issuance of Philippines passports, he added.

ARAB TIMES, SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2016

15INTERNATIONAL

In this photograph taken on July 23, 2016, a chalk outline remains on a street in Manila after the funeral personnel moved the body of an unidentified man (also inset) killed by unidentified gunmen in this picture taken on July 23. The Philippine government on Aug 19, criticised as ‘baseless and reckless’ a UN statement that President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs amounted to a crime

under international law. (Inset): In this photograph taken on July 23, the body of a man, shot dead by unidentified gunmen, lies on the ground in Manila. (AFP)

A suspect (center), accused of breaching the junta’s ban on political gatherings for being part of a network called Revolutionary Front of Democracy, some of Lese Majeste and others with arms trafficking, is taken out of a van before being escorted to the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok on Aug 19.

(AFP)

Philippines

UN slammed

‘Duterte wasn’tbehind killings’MANILA, Aug 19, (Agencies): The Philippine government on Friday criticised as “baseless and reckless” a UN statement that President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs amounted to a crime under international law.

Duterte’s chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo told AFP the administration was not behind the extra-judicial killings targeting alleged criminal suspects, challeng-ing UN human rights experts to visit the Philippines and investi-gate.

Two UN rights experts said Thursday that Duterte’s directives call-ing on law enforcers and the public to kill suspected drug traffick-ers “amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under interna-

tional law”.“When you are in New York or

somewhere else, 10,000 kms or miles away from the Philippines and then you make such judgments, that’s recklessness,” Panelo said.

“Those statements are misplaced and baseless, and they better come over and see for themselves the real situation.”

Duterte, 71, won May elections in a landslide on a promise to kill tens of thousands of suspected criminals to prevent the Philippines from becoming a narco-state. He has offered security officials boun-ties for the bodies of drug dealers.

When he took office on June 30, Duterte told a crowd in Manila: “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful.” However, Panelo said the UN should not take such statements seriously.

“He is just asking the public to cooperate with the campaign.”

HyperboleDuterte’s spokesmen have said his

statements are just hyperbole but police have reported killing more than 600 people since he took office.

The nation’s largest broadcaster ABS-CBN has put the death toll at over 1,100, which includes reported vigilante killings where bodies turn up on streets with card board signs branding them as drug pushers.

Panelo insisted police only killed suspects in self-defence while other deaths were the work of drug syndi-cates who feared their members would surrender and cooperate with authorities.

“How can you stop the killing of members of the syndicates? You cannot be guarding them all the time,” Panelo said in response to the UN experts’ call.

International and local rights groups, some lawmakers and church leaders in the mainly Catholic nation have condemned the killings. The Philippine Senate set to launch an investigation next week into possible rights violations in police operations.

Still, Duterte’s police chief Ronald Dela Rosa said Friday law enforcers would not be deterred and the campaign was just starting.

“It’s a low (point) when we are being investigated but we go on... we never back down.”

Also:MANILA: Seventeen communist guerrilla leaders in the Philippines, granted bail by the courts to attend peace talks next week in Norway, vowed on Friday to return home after the five-day negotiations rath-er than flee.

Seven weeks in office have earned President Rodrigo Duterte a reputation as an implacable foe of drug dealers, but he was elected in May on a promise to negotiate the end of two long-running insurgen-cies, by Muslims and communists.

“We will return home after the peace talks in Oslo,” Benito Tiamzon, the highest ranking lead-er of the Communist Party of the Philippines, told a news conference hours after he and his wife, Wilma, were freed from a police prison house.

“We were released from jail to take part in the peace talks and we are serious about it,” he added. “The negotiations in Oslo are only one part of the process and there are other talks happening in other ven-ues.”

Talks brokered by Norway between the government and the Maoist-led rebels’ National Democratic Front stalled in 2012 over the government’s refusal to free communist leaders who had been in jail for decades.

Security forces feared the rebel leaders could take advantage of the peace talks to stay overseas, or use them as a pretext to consolidate their ranks and rebuild their guer-rilla army.

Sara

Morente

Andanar

Asia

Prez to be granddad to triplets: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is best known for his deadly war on drug dealers, says news that his daughter is preg-nant with triplets inspires him to carry on his tough-guy crusade.

Daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio issued a statement Friday saying she is seven weeks’ pregnant with triplets. Duterte-Carpio, 38, who was recently elected mayor of Davao city, already has two children with her law-yer husband Manases Carpio. She revealed her pregnancy in explaining why she felt she was not in shape to take part in “merry-making” at her city’s annual Kadayawan Festival this month.

Philippine media reported that Duterte said he is “delighted” to hear of his daugh-ter’s pregnancy.

“He is also hopeful that she will be able to see through the pregnancy smoothly and well,” he said in a statement issued through Communications Secretary Martin Andanar. “He hopes to leave a legacy of a Philippines that is safe from crimes and drugs to the future generation of Filipinos.”

According to the national police count as of last week, more than 500 people have been killed in gunfights with police and nearly 8,000 have been arrested in the gov-ernment’s war on drugs since Duterte took office at the end of June. Local media and other groups have higher tallies, some near-ly 1,000, and say they include apparent vic-tims of summary killings. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

Plane makes emergency landing: A light plane made an emergency landing Thursday on Indonesia’s main island of Java and the three people on board sur-vived, police said.

Col Yusri Yunus, a spokesman for West Java police, said the Cessna plane landed on a paddy field in Tasikmalaya District.

He said the plane developed engine trou-ble and the pilot sought a non-residential area to land.

The plane was flying from Pangandaran, a West Java town about 60 kms (37 miles) to the southeast, Yunus said.

Local media quoted a district chief as saying two people on board were badly hurt and were taken to a health center.

In December, a jet fighter taking part in an aerobatic show crashed and burst into flames in Central Java, killing the two

Briton David Taylor (center/black mask) is escorted by Indonesian police offi-cials at a police station in Denpasar on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on Aug 19. Indonesian police have detained an Australian woman and a British man over the brutal murder of a policeman on a popular Bali beach. Traffic police officer Wayan Sudarsa was found dead in his uniform early Wednesday on Kuta beach, in the south of the resort island, with wounds to his head and neck. (AFP)

pilots.Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago

nation of more than 250 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents in recent years. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

Briton, Aussie held over murder:

Indonesian police Friday detained an Australian woman and a British man over the brutal murder of a policeman on a pop-ular Bali beach.

Traffic police officer Wayan Sudarsa was found dead in his uniform early Wednesday on Kuta beach, in the south of the resort island, with wounds to his head

and neck.“A smashed beer bottle and smashed-up

surfboard were found near him, we suspect those were used in the attack,” Bali police chief Sugeng Priyanto told AFP.

Authorities launched a hunt for Australian woman Sara Connor and British man David Taylor over the murder, after

Connor’s ATM card and driver’s licence were found at the crime scene.

The pair, whom police believe are a cou-ple, headed to the Australian consulate where they were arrested on Friday after-noon and then taken to a police station in the Balinese capital Denpasar, said Priyanto. (AFP)

Thailand

15 held not linked to tourist bombs: police

Police name suspect in deadly blastsBANGKOK, Aug 19, (RTRS): Police identified a Thai man on Friday as a suspect in their investigation into attacks that killed four people and wounded dozens in a wave of bombings in Thailand’s south a week ago.

Deputy national police spokesman Kissana Phatanacharoen identified the suspect as Ahama Lengha from Narathiwat province near Thailand’s border with Malaysia.

A Thai military court issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday for a then unidenti-fied suspect for attempting to bomb a beach in the tourist island of Phuket.

Kissana said Ahama has not yet been taken into custody and it was not known if he was still in the country.

“We have only issued one arrest war-rant in relation to the bomb attacks, and that is for Ahama. It’s because it is clear that he is linked to what happened,” Kissana told reporters.

No group has yet claimed responsibil-ity for the bombings, which came days after Thais voted to accept a military-backed constitution.

Police and the government ruled out any link to foreign militants within hours of the attacks and insisted the perpetra-tors were home-grown.

National police chief Jakthip Chaijinda said the attacks could be linked to the referendum but has not given further details.

Suspicion has fallen on domestic politi-cal groups including supporters of ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was forced from office in 2006. While Thaksin’s supporters have not been blamed outright, police said last week the attacks were carried out simulta-neously by one group on the orders of one person, but gave no further details.

Lawyers for Thaksin have been instructed to file complaints against those accusing him of orchestrating the blasts.

Thai Defence Minister Prawit

Wongsuwan said on Monday the attacks were “definitely not an extension” of an insurgency in the southern provinces that border Malaysia and where Malay-Muslim insurgents are fighting a bloody separatist war.

However, some security experts have noted that southern insurgent groups have a track record for carrying out coordinated attacks.

Kissana said police were working with Malaysia to track down other sus-pects.

“We have received some answers from Malaysia that are useful and move the case forward,” he said.

Meanwhile, a group of 15 suspects detained by the Thai military investigat-ing last week’s deadly tourist resort attacks was not involved in the blasts, police said Friday, adding to confusion surrounding the case.

DetaineesThe junta said Thursday the detainees

had been held during their investigation into the bombing spree, which hit tourist towns in the south, killing four and wounding dozens, including Europeans.

But on Friday police officials said the group — many of whom are elderly — had instead set up an illegal network aimed at overthrowing the regime and were unconnected to last week’s attacks.

Thailand’s deputy junta chief also appeared to back that assertion.

The bombs were highly unusual in a country where foreigners and tourist towns are rarely caught up in the coun-try’s frequent bouts of political violence.

Investigators have been under pres-sure to make quick arrests given tourism is so crucial to the economy.

The group appeared at a Bangkok police station on Friday escorted by sol-diers — the first time they have been seen in public — to hear the charges against them.

Two are women and many of the men

are in their 60s and 70s.Thai media had run multiple reports

quoting anonymous investigators as say-ing the group helped coordinate the recent attacks.

But Major General Chayaphol Chatchaidej, a senior official at the Office of Police Strategy who was at the police station to receive the suspects, told reporters they were not involved.

“There is no evidence linking them to the bomb attacks in the seven southern provinces based on our investigation, although some of them are involved with lese majeste (royal defamation) and arms trafficking,” he said.

Instead he described them as a splin-ter faction of the anti-junta Red Shirt movement loyal to ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by the military in 2006.

He said the network called itself the Revolutionary Front of Democracy party — a previously unheard of group.

A police statement handed to report-ers listing the suspects’ details said the group aimed to “accumulate arms ... and overthrow the government” but made no reference to last week’s bomb attacks.

The statement said they currently face one charge of breaching the junta’s ban on political gatherings and another of belonging to an unlawful secret society.

Thailand’s deputy junta leader General Prawit Wongsuwan was later asked by reporters whether the group had links to last week’s attack. He replied with a one word: “No”.

No arrests have been made for people directly responsible for the blasts. However one arrest warrant for a wanted suspect has been issued.

Deputy police spokesman Krissana Pattanacharoen on Friday named the suspect as Ahama Lengha from southern Narathiwat province.

“It’s clear that he is involved in that incident,” he said.

The name is Muslim and Narathiwat

is one of Thailand’s three southernmost Muslim majority provinces where a local but brutal insurgency has raged for years. Police and the military have ruled out international terrorism for last week’s attacks, saying the perpetrators were “local saboteurs”.

A number of analysts say the most likely culprits are ethnic Malay militants from the deep south.

The attacks bore many hallmarks of the southern insurgents — who never claim their operations — including coor-dinated multiple strikes and the type of devices used.

But the junta leadership has been adamant that the deep south conflict has not spread north. Instead their focus has centred on domestic political groups who are opposed to their rule.

The Red Shirts have denied any involvement and accused the junta of using the bombs as an excuse to further crack down on opponents.

Also:BANGKOK: A Thai student activist detained for campaigning against a mili-tary-backed constitution and in the sec-ond week of a hunger strike will be released on bail on Friday, his lawyers said.

Voters overwhelmingly approved the constitution backed by Thailand’s rul-ing junta in an Aug 7 referendum, pav-ing the way for a general election in 2017.

Critics say the constitution will stifle democracy and entrench military influ-ence in politics.

The military government prevented opponents from campaigning against the charter before the vote and the Election Commission introduced a law criminal-ising any such activity.

Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, a student at Khon Kaen University in the country’s northeast, was detained on Aug 6 for handing out “vote no” leaflets.

177 en route to Saudi

Philippines nab ‘fake’ Filipinos

Duterte