» Former servant testifies again political clan in massacre trial
Former servant testifies again political clan in massacre trial
Posted on : 2010-09-08 | Author : dpa
News Category : Asia
Manila - A servant of a powerful political clan in the southern Philippines testified on Wednesday that he witnessed the family plan the worst political killing in the country's history.
Fifty-seven people died in the November 23, 2009 massacre in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.
The Ampatuan family, which ruled the province for more than two decades, is accused of masterminding the crime.
Former domestic staff employee Lapudin Saliao told a court he was serving food and drinks when family members met to plan the massacre six days before the event.
The witness said that principal suspect Andal Ampatuan Junior,clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Senior, several relatives and supporters attended the meeting in the family mansion in Shariff Aguak town.
Ampatuan Senior said he wanted to stop his political rival, Esmael Mangudadatu, from contesting the governorship of Maguindanao.
"It's easy father, let's kill them all," Saliao quoted Ampatuan Junior as telling his father.
The trial resumed Wednesday after being suspended since February due to various petitions filed by the defence, raising concerns over the safety of witnesses and the victims' families.
Ampatuan Junior allegedly led more than 100 militiamen and police officers in an attack on a convoy, killing relatives of Mangudadatu as well as 32 journalists and other media workers.
Mangudadatu was not with the convoy at the time.
Prosecuting lawyer Harry Roque said the prosecution had lined up as many as 200 witnesses against the Ampatuans.
Dozens of the suspects, including Ampatuan Junior, Ampatuan Senior, and four family members, are currently detained in Manila.
» China greets Myanmar junta leader with open arms
China greets Myanmar junta leader with open arms
Posted on : 2010-09-08 | Author : dpa
News Category : Asia
Beijing - China gave Myanmar's military leader, a pariah among most Western democracies, a warm welcome as he prepared Wednesday to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Senior General Than Shwe's five-day visit was aimed at cementing ties between Myanmar and one of its few allies, whose investment in Myanmar has surged this year and who has repeatedly sought to deflect criticism of its regime's poor human rights record.
Ahead of his meeting with Hu, Than Shwe met late Tuesday with the chief of the Chinese army's general staff, Chen Bingde, and both countries agreed to expand their military cooperation, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.
"Fruitful" cooperation has brought concrete advantages to both neighbours and China's and Myanmar's militaries should push forward their traditional friendship and cooperation, Xinhua quoted the Chinese general as saying.
Than Shwe's meeting with Chen came the day he arrived in Beijing, where he was also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, who in June became the first Chinese premier to visit Myanmar in 16 years.
Few governments would receive Than Shwe because of the Myanmar military government's poor human rights record, which has been internationally condemned for decades, but China prepared a huge welcome for the general and his 34-member military delegation.
Sino-Myanmar diplomatic ties have deepened over the past two decades as most Western democracies have condemned Myanmar and slapped it with economic sanctions.
Recent criticism of Myanmar has focussed on the junta's plan to hold the country's first general elections in 20 years. While those critics have said the junta was insuring that the November 7 elections would be neither free nor fair, China has called it an important step toward democracy in the country, which was once called Burma.
"China, as a one-party Communist state under authoritarian rule, is in no position to make any value judgement about whether the polls in Than Shwe's Burma are genuinely democratic or a sham," said Maung Zarni, a political scientist and Bangkok-based research fellow at the London School of Economics. "If Beijing does that, it would be like a pot calling the kettle black."
Western countries have shunned investment in Myanmar, but China has filled the breach, especially in energy-related projects.
Myanmar has strategic importance for neighbouring China because of its natural resources and access to the Indian Ocean. Chinese warships dock regularly in Myanmar while China's investment in the country has surged in recent years.
Four years ago, China's official investments in the country amounted to less than 200 million dollars, but so far this year, they have hit 10 billion dollars.
According to Myanmar news reports, Chinese investors recently won approval for two hydroelectric dams in the country, oil and gas pipelines to southern China's Yunnan province and a copper mine.
» Japan arrests Chinese ship captain over collisions - Update
Japan arrests Chinese ship captain over collisions - Update
Posted on : 2010-09-08 | Author : dpa
News Category : Asia
Beijing/Tokyo - The Japan Coast Guard arrested the captain of a Chinese ship Wednesday for allegedly colliding with its patrol boats in the East China Sea, news reports said.
The 41-year-old Chinese national was held on suspicion of obstructing public duties, after his boat clashed with Japanese coast guards in disputed territory north-east of Taiwan.
The suspect was to be taken for questioning, an unnamed government official was quoted by the Japanese Kyodo News agency as saying.
The captain was suspected of "deliberately" colliding with one of the two Japanese patrol boats trying to apprehend his vessel, thus interfering with their duties, unnamed Coast Guard sources told Kyodo.
The arrest would not affect diplomatic relations between Japan and China, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said Wednesday.
The top government spokesman told a news conference the two countries were trying not to "escalate" the current situation.
Two collisions occurred off the islands known as Senkaku in Japan, Diaoyu in China and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan, which are claimed, together with the oil-rich surrounding area, by all three countries.
No one was injured in the incident, the report said.
Tokyo and Beijing both registered formal complaints with each other's ambassadors, news reports said.
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