International FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2016 18 Show face to cops, Muslims in Philippine city ordered

DAVAO, : Women in burqas and killed 15 in the southern city. “It would be a which shows your face or cooperate with the public places,” the mayor added. Surgical masks those wearing surgical masks should refrain good security practice to disallow garments security personnel and show your face if you are commonly worn by commuters in Asian from concealing their faces in public, the that cover the faces in public places,” the may- are wearing the burqa,” the mayor said. Muslim cities, to block out pollution, or sometimes to Philippine president’s mayor daughter said or said in a written statement. women in the majority Catholic nation usually stop the spread of illness. Since the deadly blast yesterday, describing the measure as aimed at “These garments include hats, sunglasses, favor a hijab, which covers only the hair, over in the bustling market in Davao on September preventing attacks. , mayor of face masks, mouth masks, burqa, face paint, the face-concealing burqa, though it is growing 2, which led to the president declaring a “state Davao and daughter of firebrand leader and other similar things.” She said she under- in popularity. “The general welfare of the of lawlessness”, the city has introduced check- , made the remarks as police stood the concerns of Muslim women who are majority takes precedence over religious tradi- points and armed security at key establish- hunt for the suspects-seen on CCTV wearing required by their religion to cover up. tion. While it is true that these garments are not ments. The government has blamed the attack face masks-behind a bombing this month that “May I suggest that you wear the hijab disallowed by law, we discourage their use in on local Islamic militants. —AFP

Bali tourist boat blast kills two foreigners, injures 18

DENPASAR, Indonesia: An explosion on a speedboat in Bali left two foreigners dead and 18 other tourists injured yesterday, sparking dramatic scenes as rescuers rushed to haul stunned and bloodied holidaymakers off the vessel. Dazed passengers, many covered in cuts and bruises, were taken to medical centers on the Indonesian holiday island after the blast, with TV footage showing them being carried on stretchers to ambulances and lying in hospital beds. An Austrian woman was killed along with a second female foreigner, whose nationality was still being veri- fied. Two German citizens were injured while nationals from Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Spain were also among the passengers. It appeared to be an accident with the explosion occurring in the fuel tank. The bomb squad was initially deployed to the scene on an island that has suffered bloody Islamist militant attacks in the past, but authorities quickly ruled out an attack. Indonesia has a poor maritime safety record and regularly suffers fatal boat accidents but serious inci- BULACAN, Philippines: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (center in white) raises a clenched fist with Secretary of dents around Bali-which attracts millions of foreign visi- Defense Delfin Lorenzana (center right, in checkered shirt) and military chief General Ricardo Visaya (fifth right back tors each year-are rare. row) as he poses for photos with members of the Scout Rangers regiment at a military training camp in San Miguel town, The speedboat, which was carrying some 30 foreign Bulacan province, north of yesterday. —AFP tourists and four crew, had just left Padang Bai port in Bali yesterday morning en route to the holiday island Duterte killed justice official, of Gili Trawangan when the blast occurred. “The explo- sion happened five minutes after the boat departed,” local police chief Sugeng Sudarso told AFP, adding the hitman tells Philippine senate vessel had been about 200 meters (yards) from the port. One woman died from head injuries soon after the blast while the Austrian woman died later in hospi- ‘The people of Davao were being slaughtered like chicken’ tal, he said. MANILA: Rodrigo Duterte shot dead a Matobato had surrendered to the inves- al terrorist”. “The people of Davao were Poor safety record justice department employee and tigatory body in 2009 and had until being slaughtered like chicken,” he said, Sudarso said he believed a malfunctioning battery ordered the murder of opponents, a for- recently been in a witness protection adding he lied to his wife about near the fuel tank may have caused the accident. mer death squad member told parlia- scheme. Matobato recounted a 1993 butchering chickens when she saw his “Based on the testimony (from passengers) and from ment yesterday, in explosive allegations death squad mission that was uninten- blood-spattered shirts. “I don’t think he’s what I saw at the scene, the explosion came from the against the Philippine president. The tionally impeded by the vehicle of an capable of giving a directive like that,” fuel tank,” he said. “Above it was a battery, maybe there self-described assassin testified under agent of the justice department’s Duterte spokesman Martin Andanar was a short circuit that affected the fuel tank.” The oath that he and a group of policemen National Bureau of Investigation that was said, adding that the government’s British embassy in Jakarta said it was providing assis- and ex-communist rebels killed about blocking a road on the southern city of human rights commission investigated tance to British nationals affected by the explosion. The 1,000 people between 1988 and 2013 Davao. The agent ran out of bullets and the allegations but did not file charges. Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands is on Duterte’s orders-one of them an was wounded in a shootout before Duterte, who took office more than two heavily dependent on ferry services but the industry alleged kidnapper fed alive to a croco- Rodrigo Duterte, the Davao mayor at the months ago, won May elections in a has a poor safety record. dile. Others were garroted, burned, time, showed up armed with a subma- landslide on a promise to kill thousands Last year, dozens of tourists were injured when small quartered and then buried at a quarry chine gun, Matobato said. “Mayor Duterte of criminals. He has rejected calls by the explosions hit a ferry crossing between Bali and the owned by a police officer who was a was the one who finished him off.... He United States, the United Nations and neighboring holiday island of Lombok. The explosions, member of the death squad. Others emptied two Uzi magazines on him.” rights groups to stop extra-judicial determined to be an accident, were thought to have were dumped at sea to be eaten by fish. killings. Matobato said he received come from the fuel tank of the ferry, which was carrying Edgar Matobato, 57, made the allega- ‘Like chickens’ orders to kill either directly from Duterte 129 passengers, most of them tourists. However fears tions before the Senate, which is investi- “I didn’t kill anyone unless ordered by or from active-duty Davao police officers have also been growing in Indonesia that radicals who gating alleged extrajudicial killings in Charlie Mike,” he said, telling the senate assigned to the mayor’s office who were have headed to fight with the Islamic State group in the Duterte’s anti-crime crackdown that it was the death squad’s coded refer- also part of the death squad. Middle East could encourage supporters back home to police said has left 3,140 people dead in ence to city mayor, referring to then- mount attacks, or may do so themselves on their return. his first 72 days in office. Justice mayor Duterte. Matobato’s testimony ‘Disembowelled bodies’ In January, a gun and suicide bomb attack claimed Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre called the fleshed out in gruesome detail for the “The officers told us ordinary killings by IS in the capital Jakarta left four attackers and four allegations “lies and fabrications”, first time long-running allegations won’t do. They are sadists,” he said, civilians dead. Bali has been attacked by Islamic radicals adding Matobato “is obviously not Duterte was behind the killings of more describing how the victims were stran- before. In 2002, more than 200 people, mostly foreign telling the truth”. than a thousand petty criminals, includ- gled. “Then we’d remove their clothes, tourists, were killed in bombings on the island. A sus- Duterte aides said the government’s ing minors, in Davao, where he was burn the bodies and chop them up,” tained crackdown following the Bali bombings had Commission on Human Rights had mayor for most of the past two decades. Matobato said, adding that he had per- weakened the most dangerous networks but IS has already investigated the allegations but “Our job was to kill criminals, rapists, sonally killed “about 50” people. Some proved a potent new rallying cry for the country’s did not file charges while his son, Paolo pushers, and snatchers. That’s what we victims were disembowelled and extremists. A pocket of Hinduism in Muslim-majority Duterte, called the testimony “mere did. We killed people almost on a daily dropped at sea, while others were left Indonesia, Bali attracts millions of foreign visitors every hearsay” of “a madman”. The then head basis” between 1988 and 2013, said on Davao streets with rusty handguns year due to its palm-fringed, tropical beaches and pic- of the Commission on Human Rights, Matobato, adding they also killed planted in their hands to simulate a gun ture-postcard temples. —AFP Senator , told the inquiry Duterte family foes and an “internation- battle, he added. — AFP