I’ve visited Nairobi several times since June and each visit I’ve been startled by the large number of killings publicly confirmed by the police. Some days the police admit to killing as many as five to ten people — all likely robbers and violent criminals, according to the cops.

Whenever I complain about the amount of killings by police, Kenyans tell me that the police actions are welcome — and that there are simply too many crimes in Nairobi and too many armed criminals.

The police also have taken to killing suspects rather than arresting them — partly as a form of protest against a judicial system that moves too slowly against criminals and too often offers them leniency. Prosecutors, meanwhile, routinely fall down on the job, failing to document their cases sufficiently.

The judicial failures, while real, are used as an excuse for police to kill people with impunity. The practice of police killings legitimizes violence in Kenya, by ordinary criminals and political actors alike as well as by the state itself.
That so many of the people killed by police are alleged to be carrying weapons has made me wonder whether the police routinely plant guns on those they kill in order to protect themselves from complaints and obtain at least a flimsy justication for their deadly actions.

My worst suspicions about extra-judicial killings by police have been confirmed by a United Nations investigator. Philip Alston has found that senior police officials are ordering killings by their officers. Alston told the BBC: “Kenyan police are a law unto themselves. They kill often, with impunity.”

Alston provided evidence showing that police officers are given a “bonus” of $65 for every “suspect” they kill. He called on Kenya’s government to fire its police chief.

http://www.gogo.to/hkbhb7

By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2511536/Police-chief-calls-for-universal-DNA-database.html

Stephen House, Chief Constable of Strathclyde, said that storing the genetic profiles of every man, woman and child would help catch more criminals.

He also called for Scotland to adopt the English DNA system that allows the profiles of suspects to be kept even if they are not charged with any wrongdoing.

Police in Scotland have to destroy the DNA records of innocent people but can keep samples of those accused of sexual or violent crimes for three years.

There are around 4.2 million DNA profiles stored in England, which has the biggest genetic database in the world.

However, a government inquiry recommended last week that one million of these should be destroyed because they came from people who had never been convicted.

Increasing DNA databases north or south of the border would also be strongly opposed by human rights groups and by many politicians. In Scotland, the database currently holds the genetic profiles of around 200,000 Scots.

Mr House said he was pressing minister adopt the English system, and used the case of the murdered teenager Sally Anne Bowman to support his case.

Her killer was caught by the Metropolitan Police largely through a DNA sample collected after an unrelated incident that was already in the system.

He added: “In Scotland the chances are that the DNA would be destroyed but in England it wasn’t, it was put on the database and matched. There are numerous examples of where that has happened.

“An even more complete system is to say we will go the whole hog. Forget criminality, we’ll take DNA from everyone in the country.

“If the public and the government decide they want to do it, you would do it gradually.

“One of the ways to do it is that you would say all newborn children would have DNA recorded and when you apply for a driver’s license your DNA would be taken and gradually over the years would start to develop a 100 per cent database. Would it deter people? That’s less certain, but we would detect more crime.”

Last year, a senior judge called for the entire UK population, and every visitor to Britain to be put on the DNA database.

Lord Justice Sedley, one of England’s most experienced appeal court judges, described the country’s current system as “indefensible”.

However, any move towards a national database would meet with fierce opposition. Nick Clegg, leader of the Lib Dems, has described the British public as the most “spied upon on the planet”.

The organization Liberty said a database of every man, woman and child in the country was a “chilling proposal, ripe for indignity, error and abuse”.

And the human rights lawyer John Scott said yesterday that the plan would “disturb the balance between the state and the individual”.

He added: “At a time when people are calling for the English system to be closer to our own, we shouldn’t be going in the opposite direction.

“We could get a situation where outside bodies like insurance firms manage to get hold of DNA from innocent people and use it for their own purposes.”

The issue is being reviewed for the Scottish Executive by Prof James Fraser of Strathclyde University’s center for forensic science.

Simon Davies, of the human rights watchdog organization Privacy International, said the Strathclyde force had a history of “obsession with DNA collection” and it was time it was “reined in”.

He added: “It was Strathclyde that proposed many years ago mandatory DNA collection for even minor offences. What it is proposing is a step too far.”

On the opening day of the largest NATO gathering in history a brutal mass arrest of activists took place in Bucharest, Romania.

This afternoon hundreds of police made a sudden attack on the legally rented convergence center that local activists had set up to house demonstrators from abroad, as well as serve as a space to organize actions. Wearing ski masks and carrying sub machine guns a team of 80 special forces moved into the space where people were in the process of cooking and talking. Albert, one of the 60 activists who were arrested spoke to me from the police station:

“Yeah the place, over the space was taken by the police. There is nobody inside. Everybody who was inside was taken by the police. They beat everybody inside, and everybody got arrested. ”

A police spokesperson stated that nothing illegal had been found within the center, but that the police intervention was provided for in the national constitution. One protester was rushed to the hospital due to the severity of the violence strikes by the police. The Romanian government has taken a zero tolerance towards any actions against NATO.

From Bucharest, Romania, for FSRN this is Amy Miller

Clashes erupted in downtown Minsk, as squads of black-clad riot police sought to block opposition demonstrators who were marching toward a detention center, where protesters arrested Friday were being held.

Earlier, police holding large shields formed lines to force back crowds trying to reach the square where an opposition tent camp had been set up before police removed it early Friday morning, arresting hundreds.

Eventually, the protesters made their way to a city park, where they chanted anti-government slogans to denounce hard-line President Alexander Lukashenko. Police made no move against them there, and the mood was largely confident, in spite of government warnings that the rally was illegal.

Top opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich told the crowd that Belarus would soon be free from Lukashenko’s rule. Lukashenko has been in power since 1994.

The long-time president was declared the winner of Sunday’s election, with 83 percent of the vote. Mr. Milinkevich was credited with six percent. Protesters say the results are false, and are demanding a new election, although there is little chance the authorities will agree to that demand.

However, Milinkevich told the protesters their rallies and the tent camp protest prove that Belarusians are no longer afraid to voice their opinions. He said, “If you had asked me a month ago if something like this would happen, I would have said, ‘only someone crazy would think we could stay on the square for more than three days.’”

After the rally dispersed, some protesters followed a call by another top opposition leader, Alexander Kozulin, to march to the detention center, where protesters detained Friday are being held. Police detained Kozulin and an aide to Milinkevich.

On Friday, the United States and European Union announced that they will impose new sanctions against the Lukashenko government, because of apparent fraud in Sunday’s election and the crackdown against the opposition.

Russia accuses Western powers of meddling in the internal affairs of Belarus, and has congratulated Mr. Lukashenko on his re-election.

Before returning the verdict, the military auditor of Mbandaka Military Court, Captain Lingwema Likanza, asked for all who followed the case to break the fear of denouncing any similar act made by men in uniform.

After pointing out the facts, Judge Kole Mukengeshayi thereafter pronounced his verdict which condemned Botuli Itofo, the recognised principal author of the massive rapes, to 20 years in prison.

The eleven other police officers, joint authors of these acts, of which ten are on the run, were condemned to 5 years in prison. All the 12 defendants will have to jointly pay 5,000 dollars to each of the 38 rape victims as damages, in conjunction with the Congolese state, who are civilly responsible for police officers on mission of service.

Overall, 52 women and young girls came forward as rape victims by the police officers. Because of lack of evidence, the court declared the complaints of 22 of the alleged victims as non-founded

Counsel for the state, Mr. François Tshiteya, said he was satisfied with the judgment. The population of Waka and Lifumba, which held their breath for the verdict last Tuesday, is also satisfied with the judgment.

The victims however, are not so confident that the damages awarded will be paid. The Chief of Waka sector, spokesperson for the victims, transmitted this concern to the court immediately after the verdict.

Mr. Tshiteya Counsel promised that upon obtaining the copy of the judgment, he will undertake the procedure whereby the Congolese state will pay the damages. Among the victims, some were repudiated by their husbands after the rapes, and others suffer from sexually transmitted infections.

It should be noted that on the same day another verdict was pronounced by the military tribunal against four police officers, for the murder of one demobilized soldier and the rape of his wife and her mother.

The culprits were condemned to between 6 months and 5 years in prison. They will have to also pay jointly with the Congolese State 5,000 dollars in damages to the family of the deceased demobilized soldier, and 5 thousand dollars to the widow of the demobilised and her mother respectively, in damages relating to the rapes.

Furthermore, MONUC mobilised its helicopter for the transfer of the court to Waka, and in conjunction with the UN High Commission for Human Rights made the open court proceedings a reality.