- As Aleppo secures Cease-Fire Deal in Besieged Syrian City, Rebels Say
China is ready to give the Philippines weapons to help President Rodrigo Duterte wage his controversial war on drugs which has claimed over 5,000 lives, the Chinese ambassador to Manila said.
Beijing has previously said it supports Duterte’s bloody crime war, which has been slammed by the United Nations and human rights watchdogs over alleged extrajudicial killings.
Beijing and Manila have experienced a rapprochement since Duterte’s election in May, despite their conflicting territorial claims to the South China Sea.
Ambassador Zhao Jianhua, in remarks late Monday, confirmed China was ready to supply the Philippines with weapons.
“We’re exploring the possibilities of providing arms, light arms,” Zhao told reporters.
“Arms for fighting against terrorism, (for the) anti-drug campaign.”
The ambassador said talks were still in the initial stages, adding there was no agreement on price or the specific type of weapons, though they would most likely be rifles.
Duterte, 71, won elections in a landslide on a pledge to kill tens of thousands of criminals to fight narco-politics in the Philippines. Since he took office the crackdown has claimed over 5,000 lives.
The firebrand leader has also distanced the Philippines from longtime ally Washington, announcing his country’s “separation” from the United States on a visit to the Chinese capital in October.
The Chinese ambassador noted bilateral relations were “good” and were “going to be better” still, “because your president paid a very fruitful and historic state visit to China”.
Duterte has also hit out at US President Barack Obama and the State Department for criticism of his drug war.
However, according to Manila, incoming US leader Donald Trump has taken a different tact from Obama, apparently praising the crackdown when he spoke to Duterte by phone this month.
On Sunday, Duterte said China was ready to supply the Philippines with arms under generous terms.
“It is a grant payable in 25 years so it is practically giving,” Duterte said in a speech.
He recently cancelled an order of about 27,000 assault rifles from the US after media reports that human rights concerns over his crime war would affect the delivery of the weapons.
In the meantime, the bloody four-year siege of Aleppo appears to be nearing the end.
A cease-fire agreement has been reached that would allow civilians and remaining rebel fighters trapped in the besieged Syrian city to evacuate, NBC confirmed Tuesday.
Five buses will head into the enclave in the eastern section of the city to pick up the survivors around 5 a.m. Wednesday local time, a source said.
It was not immediately clear what weapons the fighters will be allowed to take with them, they said.
“My brothers, cease fire in all neighborhoods of besieged Aleppo city, total ceasefire but all units be prepared in case of any breach of the cease-fire,” Alfarouq, the leader of the Ahrar ash-Sham rebel group, who negotiated the deal, declared in a statement. “Now it is a ceasefire but it’s still in the beginning (and) might fail. So cease fire, but stay on high alert. God bless you.”
There was no immediate confirmation of the agreement from the Syrian government, which has been waging a brutal campaign to recapture what was once the country’s biggest city — and which is now in ruins. But NBC confirmed that much of shelling and air strikes stopped in Aleppo when the cease-fire was announced.
Russia’s envoy to the United Nations said the buses are just for the fighters, not for the civilians.
“Now it’s going to be under the control of the Syrian government, so there is no need for the remaining civilians to leave and there are humanitarian arrangements in place,” Vitaly Churkin said.
A short time later, Russia announced that all military action in eastern Aleppo was over and that the Syrian government was now in the control.
“I can’t confirm the veracity of these reports that this….arrangement has in fact been reached,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said.”That said, I’ve also seen nothing to indicate that those reports were not true.”
David Miliband of the International Rescue Committee said the ceasefire was too little, too late.
“Eastern Aleppo has become a bloody graveyard for thousands of innocent people,” said Miliband.
The development came after dozens of civilians were killed by Syrian forces in what the United Nations described as “a complete meltdown of humanity” during the final battle for Aleppo.
Citing accounts of women and children being burned alive and of families choosing suicide over surrender, the U.N. human rights office said it received reports of pro-government forces killing at least 82 people as they tightened their grip on the city.
Rupert Colville, spokesman of the U.N. human rights office, said before the agreement was announced that he feared retribution against thousands of civilians still holed up in a “hellish corner” smaller than one square mile.
Eleven women and 13 children were among those killed in four different neighborhoods late Monday, Colville told a news briefing, adding that there could be “many more.”
“The reports we had are of people being shot in the street trying to flee and shot in their homes.”
Jens Laerke, U.N. humanitarian spokesman said that it looked like “a complete meltdown of humanity in Aleppo.”
U.N. agency UNICEF said “many children, possibly more than 100, unaccompanied or separated from their families, are trapped in a building, under heavy attack in east Aleppo,” citing reports form a doctor on the scene.
Arab media reported that scores of civilians were burned alive by regime forces, although this was not confirmed by observers at the Aleppo Media Center or the U.K.-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights.
Charles Lister, a Syria expert and senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said there were “truly shocking stories from Aleppo including husbands and wives taking each other’s lives in family suicides” and that hundreds may have died during Monday’s fighting.
MSN with additional report from NBC