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Saturday, December 10, 2005
Angry mob lynched, broke hands of thief
A man accused of stealing a goat was mobbed by angry residents who allegedly broke both his hands, on a remote Muslim enclave in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines, witnesses said Friday.
They said the angry mobbed captured Greg Banani on Thursday after the goat's owner cried for help when he saw the man stole the animal from the back of their house and then ran away.
"He was lynched and they broke both his hands with a hammer for stealing the goat. The neighbors suspect the man was also behind the disappearance of many goats in the village, you know goat meat is an expensive delicacy here," one witness said. "This should serve a lesson to the others, do not steal."
Radio reports on Friday said the man was handed over to the police by village guards after rescuing him from an angry neighborhood. "They hammered his hands for stealing the goat," villager Dodong Ramos Estrada said.
Villagers complained to the police that they also lost their goats and wanted the man to pay for it. Police said it is still investigating whether Banani had anything to do with the missing animals.
Last week, villagers also caught a man slaughtering a cow he took from a farm and he too was also mauled before the police arrived.
Many villagers have formed small vigilante groups in the southern Philippines to protect their homes and properties from thieves and bandits, and in some cases, tortured or executed those that they caught.
Even the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is negotiating peace with Manila, executed eight people for alleged crimes in Lanao del Sur province since 1997.
Executions based on Islam's Shariah justice system have been a major irritant in the peace negotiations between the MILF and the government. The MILF maintains that it does not recognize the Constitution of the Philippines and rules its claimed territories with its own set of laws.
And the same goes with the communist rebel group New People's Army, which has also killed many civilians for various crimes in the past. (Al Jacinto)
(December 10, 2005 issue)
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