Philippine security forces arrested a key suspect who has been charged in the massacre of 57 people last year, the country’s worst incident of political violence, after he was shot by rival clan members, police said yesterday.
Edris Kasan, who has a 200,000 pesos (US$4,400) bounty for his capture, was arrested early yesterday after he was admitted to a hospital in a southern island with gunshot wounds.
Police spokesman Agrimero Cruz said Kasan, who has been on the run since he was charged late last year in connection with the massacre, would be moved to a military hospital.
“He’s under heavy guard at a hospital after we confirmed his identity,” Cruz said, adding that Kasan had checked into hospital with a false name.
“Some witnesses were also brought to the hospital to make sure we got the real suspect. We will move him to a hospital at an army base for security reasons,” Cruz said.
Kasan was wounded in a gun battle with a rival clan in Datu Hoffer town, Cruz said.
Security forces have stepped up efforts to locate and arrest more than 130 suspects still at-large, including 20 members of the powerful Ampatuan clan, who were charged with the mass killings. Only 62 are in custody.
Filipinos expect the government of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III to be more aggressive than the previous administration in prosecuting the case. A total 197 people had been charged in court for the murders.
The trial of the main suspect, Andal Ampatuan Jr, has been suspended since February, held up by defense motions including one seeking to disqualify the judge. Ampatuan and 17 of his followers had pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial.
The Ampatuan clan had ruled southern Maguindanao province on Mindanao for a decade. The massacre happened on Nov. 23, when about 100 armed men attacked a convoy on their to way to witness the filing of nomination papers for a member of the Mangudadatu family, rivals to the Ampatuans, to stand in local elections.
The armed men also killed people who were not in the convoy but had seen the attacks, and then tried to bury the bodies and their vehicles in mass graves. The dead included about 30 journalists.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the