WORLD - current events

National Catholic Reporter, Sept 17, 1999

Police reform proposed in Northern Ireland

A report released Sept. 8 said the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland's controversial police force, will be renamed under radical reform proposals drawn up by an independent commission.

The 128-page report, by a team headed by Chris Patten, Britain's last governor of Hong Kong, proposes radical changes in the Protestant-dominated Royal Ulster Constabulary in a bid to win support for the force from the Catholic minority. The BBC reported that the force would be renamed the "Northern Ireland Police Service."

The BBC also said the report suggested the force should be gradually cut from 13,000 to 7,500 and that a new civilian authority should recruit on a 50/50 Protestant-Catholic basis.

Irish Deputy Foreign Minister Liz O'Donnell told reporters "any fair-minded person" would agree police reform is required. She added: "That is in no way to insult the memory of the Royal Ulster Constabulary who have died in the service of the community here in Northern Ireland over 30 years of taking on terrorism."

Religious leaders welcome Israeli ruling on torture

Liberal Jewish rabbis and one leading Islamic religious figure have welcomed a Sept. 6 Israeli Supreme Court ruling explicitly banning the torture of imprisoned security suspects. But the decision has drawn fire from Jewish religious nationalists who say it will undermine Israel's efforts to prevent terror attacks.

"The ruling certainly is in keeping with Jewish teaching, which does not allow you to exploit an individual under your control except in a situation of life and death," said Rabbi David Rosen of the Jerusalem Office of the Anti-Defamation League.

Rabbi Arik Asherman of Rabbis for Human Rights described the court ruling as the culmination of a decade-long campaign by Israeli and international human rights activists to outlaw the forms of physical abuse that have long been sanctioned within the interrogation cells of the Israeli Shin Bet, or General Security Services.

Sheikh Abdullah Nimmer Darwish, a leader of the Islamic Movement based inside Israel, also described the ruling as a "democratic and humane decision."

Sharp criticism of the Supreme Court decision, however, was heard in religious nationalist circles. Hanan Porath, a leading Orthodox politician, said that in the aftermath of the ruling Israel's security services might as well close up their offices and hand over their investigative functions to the Supreme Court.

Philippine Jesuit says minors face execution, despite law

A Jesuit priest who heads a prison apostolate said some young Filipinos in jail face execution when the law says their maximum sentence should be life imprisonment.

Jesuit Fr. Silvino Borres said there are at least seven convicts on death row at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City who were below age 18 when they allegedly committed their crimes. He said they should not have been sentenced to death.

Borres, executive director of the Philippine Jesuit Prison Service, explained that under the Philippine Revised Penal Code, minors ages 15-17 should be given sentences one degree lower than those prescribed for adult offenders, while those ages 10-14 are exempt from criminal liability unless they acted with discernment.

Those sentenced to death for crimes allegedly committed as minors "should have been made to avail of a suspended sentence," said the priest.

Priest's murder viewed as part of Hindu extremists' killings

Using bows and arrows, assailants killed a Catholic priest in a part of Orissa state where a Hindu extremist is blamed for murdering an Australian missionary and his two sons eight months ago.

The priest's killing, seen as part of a pattern of killings by Hindu extremists, has evoked outrage from church leaders. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has ordered the arrest of the alleged culprits.

Fr. Arul Doss, 35, was attacked by 15 or 20 men in Jambani village in the eastern Indian state's Mayurbhanj district at dawn Sept. 2, Balasore diocese sources reported based on testimony by eyewitnesses.

The Anandpur parish priest had gone to the remote village to celebrate Mass for some 15 Ho tribal families during a harvest festival, according to Fr. Varghese Puthumattam, a Balasore diocesan priest.

Greek Orthodox says pope must apologize

Greek Orthodox church leaders said Sept. 6 that in order to receive a religious welcome in Greece Pope John Paul II must apologize for what they said were centuries of Catholic misdeeds against the Christian Orthodox. Greek Premier Costas Simitis said the snub was not binding and that the pontiff can make his first-ever visit to Greece on his desired trip to parts of the Middle East later this year.

A spokesman for the Greek synod, Metropolitan Kallinkos, made clear that if the pope wants to visit he must show a sign of "humility and repentance" for what some Orthodox clerics consider a long history of Vatican-sponsored aggression and arrogance.

The pope and some Christian Orthodox leaders have expressed a desire to draw the two churches closer after a nearly 1,000-year estrangement. The schism, which began with disputes of papal authority, has been complicated by a deep-rooted Orthodox suspicion that the Vatican is trying to extend its influence eastward.