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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 28 June 2023
Honduras adopts El Salvador-style tactics in anti-gang crackdown

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras flammable liquid. They sub-
(AP) — Authorities in Hon- dued guards and burst into
duras forced inmates to cellblocks housing mem-
sit half-naked in tight rows bers of a rival gang. They
while they searched for sprayed the victims with
contraband in a sweep of gunfire, hacked to death
prisons Monday, similar to others and then locked
the harsh tactics of neigh- their cells and set the vic-
boring El Salvador. They tims on fire.
also arrested a suspect in While Saturday’s killings at
a weekend pool hall shoot- a pool hall in the city of
ing that killed 11 people. Choloma, in Cortes prov-
The prison sweep demon- ince, happened far to the
strated the Honduran gov- north of Tamara, the two
ernment’s resolve to crack events could be related,
down on gangs following according to the police.
last week’s gang-related National Police Commis-
massacre of 46 female in- sioner Miguel Pérez Suazo
mates in the worst atrocity said authorities have de-
at a women’s prison in re- tained one suspect in the
cent memory. Police said pool hall killings and were
they were considering the looking for others.
possibility that the pool hall “We do not rule out these
shooting on Saturday was Military police guard the entrance to the National Penitentiary Center in Tamara, on the outskirts crimes could be some sort
related to the prison vio- of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Tuesday, June 26, 2023. of revenge for what hap-
lence. Associated Press pened in the women’s
On Monday, the military heads bowed onto the gang extortion and vio- Tamara, the same town prison,” Pérez Suazo said.
police who have taken backs of the men in front of lence. where the women’s prison Choloma is reputed to
charge of the nation’s them were made famous As in El Salvador, police dis- massacre occurred Tues- be the turf of the Barrio 18
prisons fanned out across last year by Salvadoran tributed videos of the pris- day. gang, which would make
several prisons, emptying President Nayib Bukele on raids, accompanied by The massacre at the wom- it a logical place to target
cell blocks and forcing in- during his crackdown on music. en’s prison in Tamara, north- their members.
mates to sit in rows, spread- gangs. Bukele’s harsh tac- Even women inmates were east of Honduras’ capital, But police said the suspect
legged and nestled against tics have led to allegations forced to sit in prison yards outraged the country and detained Monday also al-
one another. Some were of human rights abuses but with their hands on their sparked raids, curfews and legedly belonged to Barrio
forced to keep their heads also proved popular with necks, but female military a crackdown. 18. And Pérez Suazo said
bowed and their hands on residents in the Central police officers allowed In that massacre, female in- “we also do no rule out that
the back of their necks. American country where them to keep their shirts on. mates belonging to the Bar- it could have been some
Such tactics with inmates communities are emerg- One search took place rio 18 street gang smuggled type of revenge by crimi-
clad only in shorts, their ing from the oppression of at a men’s penitentiary in in guns, machetes and a nals against civilians.” q

U.N. report finds Russia tortured, executed civilians in Ukraine

By FRANK JORDANS tack on Ukraine, summarily detailing more than 900 mented 75 cases of arbi- the detention and summa-
Associated Press executing dozens of them, cases of civilians, including trary detention by Ukrainian ry execution of Ukrainian
BERLIN (AP) — Russian forc- the United Nations human children and elderly peo- security forces, saying a sig- prisoners of war by Russia.
es carried out widespread rights office said Tuesday. ple, being arbitrarily de- nificant proportion of these The latest report found that
and systematic torture of ci- The global body inter- tained in the conflict, most also amounted to enforced Russian forces also carried
vilians who were detained viewed hundreds of victims of them by Russia. disappearances. out at least 77 summary ex-
in connection with its at- and witnesses for a report The vast majority of those More than half of those de- ecutions of civilians.
interviewed said they were tained by Ukrainian forces Those detained included
tortured and in some cases also reported being tor- local officials, humanitar-
subjected to sexual vio- tured or mistreated, usually ian volunteers, priests and
lence during detention by while they were being inter- teachers, many of whom
Russian forces, the head of rogated or immediately af- were held incommunicado
the U.N. human rights office ter arrest, said Bogner. in “deplorable conditions,”
in Ukraine said. Ukraine gave U.N. investi- the report found.
“Torture was used to force gators “unimpeded confi- U.N. experts found no evi-
victims to confess to help- dential access” to detain- dence that Russian authori-
ing Ukrainian armed forces, ees at official detention ties have investigated al-
compel them to cooper- centers, with the exception legations of abuse by their
ate with the occupying au- of a group of 87 Russian own forces and the report
thorities or intimidate those sailors, she said. expressed concern over
with pro-Ukrainian views,” “The Russian Federation did a bill that would exempt
said Matilda Bogner. not grant us such access, perpetrators from criminal
Tanya Nedashkivs’ka, 57, mourns the death of her husband who The report, which covers a despite our requests,” Bog- liability for crimes com-
was killed in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, 15-month period from the ner said. mitted in occupied parts
April 4, 2022. start of the Russian invasion The U.N. rights office has of Ukraine under some
Associated Press to May 2023, also docu- previously documented circumstances.q