RP among world’s most anarchic nations — UK index 06/09/2010

RP among world’s most anarchic nations — UK index

06/09/2010 The Philippines was listed among the world’s most disorderly countries landing at the bottom 20 percent or at 130th of 149 countries ranked in the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) of the British-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). At its current position, the Philippines was rated even below Thailand, at 124, which had experienced political strife involving clashes between armed troops and “Red Shirt” anti-government protesters that left almost 90 people dead, mostly civilians, recently. It was just two notches above Myanmar, at 132, and nine positions above North Korea. In Asia, it was the sixth most disorderly country after Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The IEP said the index gauges ongoing domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society and militarization in 149 countries. The Philippines fell 10 notches from its 2009 ranking at 120 and was listed one of five countries with biggest drop in its position for a year on the index. The Philippines’ fell sharply amid a worsening security situation in several parts of the archipelago, notably a violent conflict between the Islamist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the government on the island of Jolo in the Sulu archipelago, according to IEP. “It echoes rises in the archipelago’s indicators of internal conflict and crime,” it added.  It noted that the conflict between the ASG and government forces in Sulu escalated, with 163 conflict-related fatalities in 2009, compared with 82 during the previous year.  “The ASG continued to use kidnapping to raise its profile and hostages as bargaining tools. An ongoing contretemps between the Communist Party of the Philippines and its military wing, the New People’s Army (NPA) and the government remained violent and peace talks, initiated by Norway, were postponed,” the IED added. It said perceptions of criminality in Filipino society rose to a score of 4, defined as “high levels of distrust in other citizens”.... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100609hed5.html

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