Ramos slams UAE flag-burning protest over maid<\/p>\n
MANILA (AFP): Philippine President Fidel Ramos yesterday
\nslammed protesters who burned United Arab Emirates flags as he
\nnamed a special Moslem envoy to the Middle East to plead for
\ncondemned Filipino maid Sarah Balabagan.<\/p>\n
The 16-year-old Moslem girl was sentenced to death in the
\nEmirates last weekend for stabbing to death her employer.<\/p>\n
\"The main effort of every Filipino now is to help Sarah
\nthrough our collective efforts. And such instances as flag-
\nburning which may still be happening certainly should be
\ncondemned by all of us,\" he told a news conference.<\/p>\n
\"Even if these are legitimate manifestations of protest over
\nthe unfair decision on Sarah, we must not exacerbate her
\nsituation. We may be adding to her misery,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Some Filipinos charged that protesters who burned UAE flags
\nwere to blame for the girl's fate.<\/p>\n
Abner Afuang, a policeman who had burned one UAE flag outside
\nthe country's consulate here, said on local television yesterday
\nthat he would end his protest actions so as not to hurt the
\nchances of Balabagan's acquittal on appeal.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Ramos named retired Supreme Court justice Abdulwahid
\nAbidin to plead for Balabagan's life.<\/p>\n
The UAE court said in a retrial there was no evidence to back
\nthe maid's claims that she killed in self-defense after her boss
\ntried to rape her.<\/p>\n
UAE President Sheikh Zayed ibn Sultan al-Nahayan canceled an
\nearlier verdict from June sentencing Balabagan to seven years in
\njail for manslaughter and backing her claim of rape.<\/p>\n
Abidin, a career jurist, was vested with \"full powers to
\ninclude his rendering of legal support and counsel,\" and was also
\ntasked to plead for the cause of other Filipino workers in
\nIslamic countries, Ramos said.<\/p>\n
Abidin will leave for the Emirates along with three members of
\nthe cabinet led by Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon, but the date
\nof their departure has yet to be announced.<\/p>\n
The Philippine government is anxious to avoid another
\nexecution, which would be the second this year involving a
\nFilipina maid.<\/p>\n
Manila downgraded diplomatic ties with Singapore in March
\nafter it rejected its appeal to re-investigate the case of Flor
\nContemplacion, who was subsequently executed for two 1991 murders
\nwhich many Filipinos alleged she did not commit.<\/p>\n
An Islamic court in the city of Al-Ain has set Oct. 30 to hear
\nBalabagan's appeal, her lawyer Mohammad al-Amin said in Dubai
\nlast Tuesday. He expressed hope that the girl would be reprieved.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a Kuwait Airways plane has flown to the Philippines
\nabout 55 Filipina maids who had fled their employers to take
\nrefuge in their embassy in Kuwait City, the Kuwait Times
\nnewspaper reported.<\/p>\n
The group was accompanied on Sunday by four senior officials
\nfrom the Kuwaiti immigration services, who will hold talks in
\nManila with their Filipino counterparts.<\/p>",
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