Foreign News
New Zealand PM says sorry for ‘horrific’ care home abuse
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has formally apologised to victims of abuse in care homes, following an inquiry into one of the country’s biggest abuse scandals.
The historic apology, delivered in parliament, comes after a report found that 200,000 children and vulnerable adults had suffered abuse while in state and faith-based care between 1950 and 2019.
Many of them included people from the Māori and Pacific communities and those with mental or physical disabilities.
The government has since promised to reform the care system.
“I make this apology to all survivors on behalf of my own and previous governments,” said Luxon on Tuesday. “It was horrific. It was heartbreaking. It was wrong. And it should never have happened,” he added. “For many of you it changed the course of your life, and for that, the government must take responsibility.”
The inquiry, which Luxon described as the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, took six years to complete and included interviews with more than 2,300 survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care institutions.
The ensuing report documented a wide range of abuses including rape, sterilisation, and forced labour.
It found that faith-based institutions often had higher rates of sexual abuse than state care; and civil and faith leaders fought to cover up abuse by moving abusers to other locations and denying culpability, with many victims dying before seeing justice.
The findings were seen as vindication for those who found themselves facing down powerful officialdom, the state, and religious institutions – and often struggling to be believed.
Some survivors and advocates arrived in parliament Tuesday to hear the prime minister’s apology, while hundreds of others tuned in through livestreams across the country. Luxon had earlier faced criticism for delivering the apology in parliament, as that meant many survivors could not hear from the prime minister directly.
Survivors have argued that Luxon’s apology rings hollow unless it is accompanied with proper plans for restitution.
“The effects of that trauma came through later on in life,” Tupua Urlich, a Māori survivor who had given his testimony of abuse to the inquiry, told the BBC’s Newsday programme. “It’s not just the physical abuse, it was the disconnection from my family, from my culture.”
“Justice? No, not yet… These words are nothing unless they’re followed by action, and the right kind of action that is informed by survivors.
“The government have proven that alone they’re not trusted, nor capable, of providing the sort of change and service that we need.”
Details on a restitution scheme are not expected until early next year.
Luxon said Tuesday that while the government works on a new financial redress mechanism for survivors, it would pump an additional NZ$32m ($19m, £15m) into its current system.
The inquiry had made over 100 recommendations, including public apologies from New Zealand authorities and religious leaders, as well as legislation mandating suspected abuse to be reported.
Luxon said the government has either completed or is in the process of working on 28 of these recommendations, but did not give specific detail.
A bill aimed at better protecting children in care had its first reading in parliament on Tuesday, after Luxon delivered the apology. The bill proposes, among other things, a ban on strip searches and greater restrictions on people working with young children.
Luxon also announced a National Remembrance Day to be held on 12 November next year to mark the anniversary of Tuesday’s apology.
“It is on all of us to do all we can to ensure that abuse that should never have been accepted, no longer occurs,” he said.
[BBC]
Authorities in the Dominican Republican say cocaine discovered in the country’s largest-ever seizure was headed to Europe.
Hidden in a banana shipment, officials found 9,500kg of the drug at a port in the capital, Santo Domingo.
The cocaine was hidden in 320 bags with an estimated street value of $250 million (£196 million).
At least 10 people linked to the port are under investigation with early investigations showing the bananas had arrived from Guatemala, according to the National Drug Control Directorate.
Communications chief Carlos Denvers said: “Many unknown individuals tried to transfer the drugs to another container that would be shipped on a vessel to Belgium.”
The haul far exceeds the 2,580kg seizure made by Dominican authorities at the same port in 2006.
Monitoring agencies have reported that the Caribbean is resurfacing as a major drug trafficking route from Colombia to Europe.
A report last year found the use of cocaine is increasing in several western European countries including the UK, Belgium, France and Spain.
Europe accounted for 21% of the world’s cocaine users in 2020, according to a United Nations report
Evidence suggests use of the drug is bringing dire health consequences, with recent data showing drug-poisoning deaths in England and Wales hit the highest level in 30 years, fuelled by a 30% rise in fatalities involving cocaine.
[BBC]
Afghanistan’s top cricket stars Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi have urged the Taliban to reconsider their ban on women’s access to medical education and training, terming the move “deeply unjust”.
“Education holds a central place in Islamic teachings, emphasising the pursuit of knowledge for both men and women,” Afghanistan’s T20 captain Rashid wrote in a social media post on Wednesday.
“The Quran highlights the importance of learning and acknowledges the equal spiritual worth of both genders,” he added.
Earlier this week the Taliban announced their decision to forbid older girls and women from receiving medical education and training, closing all avenues for them to become doctors, nurses or midwives.
Rashid, who said he was speaking out in support of his Afghan “sisters and mothers”, believes the decision will profoundly affect Afghan women’s future as well as “the broader fabric of society”.
The 26-year-old global icon of the sport said the country “desperately needs professionals in every field, especially the medical sector”
(Aljazeera).
A Kenyan court has convicted a photographer for the murder of LGBT activist Edwin Kiprotich Kipruto, popularly known as Edwin Chiloba, whose body was found dumped in a metal box nearly two years ago.
The court in the western city of Eldoret ruled that the prosecution had proved that Jacktone Odhiambo, who was living with Chiloba, had killed him. Chiloba’s body had been found dumped on the roadside in Eldoret, where he was a university student.
The murder sparked global condemnation, with human rights groups saying it was because of his sexuality.
Kenya is a relatively conservative society and gay sex is illegal, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, although it is not clear whether there has been any convictions.
However the Supreme Court last year affirmed a ruling allowing LGBT people the right to associate and register a rights organisation.
Judge Reuben Nyakundi ruled that the evidence, which included DNA tests, had linked the accused to the murder. The evidence also indicated that the suspect had sexually assaulted Chiloba before killing him.
The judge said the prosecution had proved the suspect’s deliberate intention and deep hatred against the deceased.
“He was a young man whom you strangled until he lost his life at the peak of his life. You were close friends, and you should have protected his life,” said the judge.
The court did not make any finding about the motive for the killing.
Chiloba’s body was found in early January last year with socks stuffed into his mouth and a piece of denim from jeans tied around his face. A post-mortem indicated that he had died from lack of oxygen, caused by smothering.
Odhiambo, who was believed to have been in a relationship with the deceased, was accused of killing Chiloba between 31 December 2022 and 3 January 2023. He had denied the charges.
On Wednesday, the prosecution said in a post on X that it had presented evidence from 23 witnesses “detailing the events leading to Chiloba’s death and proving beyond reasonable doubt that Odhiambo intentionally caused the unlawful death”.
The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said the “landmark ruling” was a “significant step toward justice for Edwin and all LGBTQ residents of Kenya, Africa and beyond”.
Odhiambo is due to be sentenced on 16 December.
[BBC]
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