Mexican police find 49 headless bodies

Mexican police find 49 headless bodies

MONTERREY, Mexico: Mexican investigators on Monday searched for perpetrators of a heinous drug-war massacre in which 49 people were killed, decapitated, dismembered and left in plastic bags on the side of a rural highway.
The mutilated corpses, whose hands had been cut off to prevent fingerprint identification, were discovered close to the northern city of Monterrey, 180 kilometers (110 miles) from the US border.
Jorge Domene, a public safety spokesman for the state of Nuevo Leon, said the victims comprised 43 men and six women, and the bodies had been stacked up at the roadside.
Adrian de la Garza, a prosecutor in Nuevo Leon state, said some of the bodies in Sunday's shocking find were naked and their hands had been cut off, though forensic experts were collecting DNA samples.
A note was found at the scene in which the Zetas -- a gang set up by ex-commandos who deserted in the 1990s -- claimed responsibility.
Initial investigations indicate that the victims were killed up to 48 hours earlier in a different location, having likely been transported by truck to where they were found.
"The grisly find was part of what has been happening in the country in general," said Domene, pointing to other mass killings.
"It is a continuation of what has already happened recently in Nuevo Laredo, a few weeks ago in Jalisco and a few months ago in Veracruz."
The gruesome discovery came just days after police found the dismembered, decapitated bodies of 18 people in two abandoned vehicles in western Mexico, in what appeared to be a revenge killing involving powerful drug gangs.
Just a few days earlier, there were 23 killings in the city of Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas state, which borders the United States, with nine people found hanging from a bridge and 14 others decapitated.
On Friday, gunmen attacked the offices of El Manana newspaper in Nuevo Laredo, even though the newspaper long ago stopped reporting on cartel violence out of fear.
The gunmen sprayed the building with high-caliber ammunition and tossed a homemade grenade at the building as the news staff worked to finish the next morning's edition. Amazingly, no injuries were reported.
In Tamaulipas, the cartels are fighting for control of a corridor that leads to US Interstate 35, a highway known as one of the most lucrative routes for drug and human smugglers.
Authorities have blamed much of the deadly violence on battles between the Zetas and groups allied to the Sinaloa Federation of Mexico's most wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
The state of Veracruz has become a battleground between the Zetas and Guzman's Sinaloa grouping, and journalists have also been targeted.
Last week, the dismembered bodies of three photographers and a news company employee were found, wrapped in plastic bags, in a canal in the metropolitan area of Veracruz, a port city on the Gulf of Mexico.
Several days earlier the Veracruz state correspondent of the national weekly news magazine Proceso was found strangled in her home.
Late last year, 96 bodies were dumped in public squares and alongside roads in the eastern state in a three-week period, with most of the killings attributed to the rivalry between the Sinaloa cartel and the Zetas.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out war against the nation's drug gangs on taking office in December 2006.

Earlier this month, 15 bodies were also discovered on the road to Chapala, Mexico, a popular retirement community for US citizens in Jalisco state.


 Src  :  Times of India.

UNFC gives deadline to halt military offensives

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The newly formed United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) says it will review the ethnic cease-fire agreements reached with the Burmese government if the government does not halt military offensives in Kachin State by June 10.

PNLO chairman Khun Okkar, left, and Aung Min, the government peace team leader, opposite. Photo: Mizzima

The UNFC was formed by six ethnic armed groups during on May 12 at a location on Thai-Burma border.

UNFC Joint Secretary (2) Colonel Khun Okkar said Karen National Union (KNU), Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) and New Mon State Party (NMSP) would reconsider their cease-fire agreements reached with the government unless the government stopped its military offensives in Kachin State.

“These three major cease-fire groups decided to make this demand to showing solidarity with their fellow KIO at the expense of their [own] cease-fire agreements reached with the government. They demand to stop using force and to seek peace instead,” he told Mizzima.

The delegates from the Chin National Front (CNF) did not attend the meeting because they were meeting with a government union-level peace delegation led by Aung Min in Hakha, the capital city of Chin State.

The UNFC statement dated May 12 said the members would review and reconsider their future plans if the government offensives continue.

The statement said, “The main purpose of the government offensives in northern Shan State and Kachin State is to protect the commercial and economic interests of foreign investments in Burma. We oppose and object to the killing of our own ethnic people in the country for the interests of foreign countries.”

Despite of a presidential order dated December 10, 2011, which ordered a halt to all military offensives in ethnic areas, the government has deployed about 2,000 troops near KIO headquarters in Laiza including artillery and helicopters, said KIA Colonel Khun Okkar.

The renewed fighting erupted between government troops and the KIA on June 11, 201. The KIA said there have been 1,300 clashes.

The statement urged the international community and not to suspend or lift the political, military and economic sanctions imposed on the government.

Khun Okkar said he cautiously welcomed the newly formed peacemaking central committee led by President Thein Sein, but it would not succeed if it continues with the current policy.

UNFC statement said the current policy of President Thein Sein for ethnic groups to form political parties, stand for election and continue the transformation and reform process in Parliament through laws and consensus is not acceptable. The decades-long political disagreements should be addressed through political dialogue, he said.

The UNFC was formed in February 2011 with six core member ethnic groups and six associate ethnic groups totaling 12 ethnic groups that are opposing the government for their right to self-determination.

Among their members, the KNU, CNF, NMSP, Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) and KNPP have signed preliminary cease-fire agreements with the government.


Src  : Mizzima