Body not found but 58th massacre victim recognized

Although his body has not been found, Reynaldo Momay, a photojournalist from General Santos City, has been formally recognized by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as the 58th victim of the “Maguindanao Massacre” in 2009.

In a DOJ resolution, Assistant State Prosecutor Bernardo Parico said the dentures recovered at the crime scene in Barangay (village) Salman in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, as well as statements of witnesses that Momay was among those killed were enough evidence to prove that he was a victim.

Momay, 63, was working for the weekly community paper Midland Review when he joined a convoy of 58 people that accompanied the wife of then Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu of Buluan town in Maguindanao to the capital, Shariff Aguak, to file his certificate of candidacy for governor on Nov. 23, 2009.

All of them, including 32 media workers, were killed allegedly by members of the Ampatuan clan and their henchmen in Sitio Masalay in Barangay Salman, 3.5 kilometers from the national highway in Ampatuan town. Some were buried along with three vehicles, while others were shot in the head.

Murder charges have been filed against 197 people, including former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., former Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and former Datu Unsay mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., in Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221.

Only 96, however, have been arrested and detained, and 78 of them have already been arraigned.

New set of charges

With Momay’s inclusion as the 58th victim, state prosecutors filed a new set of charges on Monday. The court’s clerk, Jimmy Cardines, received the revised complaint.

The additional information could mean that all 78 accused, previously arraigned for 57 counts of murder, have to go through an arraignment for the 58th count. Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes has yet to acknowledge the DOJ information and rule on whether those previously arraigned would have to make their pleas of guilty or not guilty on the 58th count.

Without an earlier proof of his death, Momay’s name was not counted among the official victims in legal proceedings of the case. As such, the court has been hearing only 57 counts of murder.

In the DOJ resolution issued on July 12 but filed in court only on Friday, Parico said the evidence was sufficient that Momay was murdered and recommended that the 96 respondents in the massacre case be additionally indicted for Momay’s death.

Daughter’s complaint

In January, the photojournalist’s daughter, Ma. Reynafe Momay-Castillo, filed a murder complaint against the massacre suspects, saying Momay was part of the ambushed convoy of media men and relatives of Mangudadatu.

Castillo said her father had called a friend before the massacre and confirmed that he was in a vehicle along with other journalists on their way to Shariff Aguak.

Momay’s body was never found, although a forensics expert from the Commission on Human Rights claimed to have recovered parts of his dentures. Castillo said the expert had concluded that the dentures did not belong to any of the 57 bodies recovered from the massacre site.

The herbalist who made the dentures identified them as her father’s, Castillo said. She added that there were witnesses who would testify that he was among the journalists who joined the convoy.

As of Tuesday night, Momay’s relatives could not be reached for comment. Castillo left the country last month and joined her mother in the United States

Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/277580/body-not-found-but-58th-massacre-victim-recognized

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Maharashtra Bus accident: 18 dead

Many school children are feared dead in Buldhana district, Maharashtra after a bus had fell off a bridge.

The state transport bus was carrying the school children along with several other passengers as it fell off the bridge. The bodies of few children, a helper and the driver in the bus were recovered at the sire after rescue operations have started.

It has been confirmed that almost 18 people were dead in the accident including several school going kids while the number is expected to rise as search operations continue.

Further details are awaited.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://www.andhrawishesh.com/home/in-the-news/33196-maharashtra-bus-accident-18-dead.html

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Tests prove Smolensk victims’ bodies were 'mixed up'

The plane crash in Russia that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others back in 2010 may once again stir controversy as two families in Poland discover that bodies they received for burial had been swapped.

Polish prosecutors announced the finding Tuesday, with DNA test results having been confirmed by two independent labs.

The two bodies were exhumed the previous week after examinations of postmortem documents received from Russia discovered several inconsistencies. The errors sparked concerns that the victims’ remains may have been passed on to Poland incorrectly.

The Smolensk plane crash took place on April 10, 2010. It involved a Polish-operated Tupolev-154, which was carrying seven crew members and 89 passengers including then-President of Poland Lech Kaczynski, his wife, almost all of the country's top military staff as well as civic and religious figures.

The delegation was heading to western Russia to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the slaughter of thousands of Polish nationals by the Soviet secret police in a forest near the village of Katyn. During a landing attempt at Smolensk-Severny Airport, the plane came down after hitting a tree, killing everyone on board. The crew’s visibility was severely restricted by a dense fog.

"The prosecutor's office is also looking into the issue of exchanging the bodies, and is investigating the evidence from this angle," said Colonel Zbigniew Rzepa, a spokesman for the military prosecutor's office.

One of the swapped bodies belongs to Anna Walentynowicz, an activist from the Solidarity trade union widely regarded at home as the “mother of independent Poland." The other body may be of scientist and civic activist Teresa Walewska-Przyjalkowska, Polish media speculate.

The Polish prosecutors’ office is now considering exhuming at least four more bodies from the crash.

It's not the first time the remains of Smolensk crash victims have been exhumed. The entire investigation, including the identification of bodies, was carried out in Russia with Polish representatives observing the process. The families of several politicians, however, insisted on independent expertise after their relatives were buried.

On April 10, 2010, President Lech Kaczynski, much of his cabinet and several civil activists were heading to the Katyn memorial near the western Russian town of Smolensk. They were going to attend a ceremony commemorating the mass executions of Poles carried out by Soviet troops during World War II.

In a dense fog, the plane went down, hitting a tree during a landing attempt at Smolensk's airport.

As the investigation proceeded, the crash began to threaten a new discord in relations between Moscow and Warsaw.

The Interstate Aviation Committee and Muscovite investigators blamed the tragedy on the plane's crew. Some circles in Poland met the finding with outrage, accusing Moscow of shirking responsibility.

Nevertheless, Warsaw finally accepted the IAC’s official version of events. But many Poles still believe that Russian air traffic controllers should not have allowed a landing attempt in such bad weather conditions. Some groups also accuse the Russian and Polish governments of being at least partially behind the tragedy. Six bodies of Smolensk crash victims were exhumed last week over suspicion of having been confused. Identities of three victims were eventually confirmed, while the bodies of Anna Walentynowicz, an activist of the Solidarity movement, and Teresa Walewska-Przyjalkowska had been mixed up, pathologists said.

Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_09_25/Tests-prove-Smolensk-victims-bodies-were-mixed-up/

http://rt.com/news/poland-smolenk-russia-bodies-960/

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10 years on, little justice in Senegal shipwreck disaster

ZIGUINCHOR, Senegal (AFP) - Ten years after one of the world's deadliest maritime disasters, relatives of those killed when a Senegalese ship sank in the Atlantic continue to clamour for some kind of justice.

Senegal on Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary of the capsizing of the Joola, a passenger ferry that was crammed more than three times beyond its capacity and tipped over in a storm as it sailed from the west African country's south to the capital Dakar.

The official toll was 1,863 but families of those who vanished say the number surpasses 2,000. The vessel was only supposed to be carrying a maximum of 580 people.

The number of deaths far exceeds the 1,500 or so who perished when the Titanic went down in 1912. Only 64 people survived.

Year after year, victims' families demand the reopening of what had been a swift and unsatisfactory judicial inquiry into the Senegal disaster.

Officials in 2003 concluded that the captain, who died in the wreck, was the only person responsible. Overcrowding and poor maintenance were also blamed.

Senegal that same year declared the case closed after several ministers and high-ranking military officers were fired, without it ever coming before a court.

"Many of the families have been unable to grieve. Most of us never received the remains of our loved ones," said Eli Diatta, a resident of Ziguinchor, the main city of the southern region of Casamance.

Her football-trainer brother perished along with 26 youngsters he was chaperoning.

"The trauma remains. It shows up in many ways: dementia, sickness, school dropouts," Diatta added.

Wednesday's anniversary will be marked by prayers, religious readings and the cleaning of cemeteries. About 500 recovered bodies were buried in mass graves, most unidentified, at four cemeteries.

After then-president Abdoulaye Wade lost the general election this year to Macky Sall, victims' associations are lobbying the new regime to reopen the case, but Marcel Mendy, a spokesman for the justice ministry, said such a move was not planned.

"The state has acted according to its capacity," he said.

The disaster did lead to the tightening of some maritime regulations and improved safety conditions on Senegal's busy coastal ferry route.

Due to the death of 22 French students in the disaster, an enquiry was opened in April in France, which had earlier issued arrest warrants against seven Senegalese civilian and military officials.

Relatives want the wreck refloated to gain some kind of closure and search for any remains that may still exist. Authorities promised to do so under the Wade regime but the project shows no signs of materialising.

"It's a delicate matter and any decision on the refloating must be concerted," Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye told lawmakers earlier this month.

The wreck is located off the coast of Gambia, a narrow, English-speaking nation that almost bisects Senegal.

Construction began at the start of the year for a memorial to be erected in Dakar to honour the victims, but work there has since ground to a halt.

In Senegal, the majority of families accepted 10 million CFA francs (15,200 euros, $19,700) offered by the state for each victim, but others have refused, still hoping for successful legal action.

The world's deadliest maritime disaster in peacetime occurred in 1987, when the Philippines ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with an oil tanker, killing more than 4,000 people.

During World War II, a Russian submarine in the Baltic torpedoed the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff, which was packed with refugees. More than 9,000 people died. Wednesday 26 September 2012

http://www.modernghana.com/news/419988/1/10-years-on-little-justice-in-senegal-shipwreck.html

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