Black day of mourning for killings in Philippines

Black will be the colour of the day tomorrow in a corner of Statue Square in Central in a symbolic fight against the extrajudicial killings of journalists and leftist activists in the Philippines.

The Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines - a coalition of various human rights, church and workers' groups - would open a booth on the square to distribute information on the issue, said Dolores Balladares, chairwoman of United Filipinos in Hong Kong.

'We will wear black to identify what we have done so far, it is symbolic. We will wear black armbands or T-shirts,' Ms Balladares said.

Bruce Van Voorhis, of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission, will speak about the latest update on various investigation panels and plans for victims' families to bring their cases before a Permanent People's Tribunal in The Hague next month.

The coalition sent a fact-finding mission to Manila in July and came out with its own report.

On Thursday, a Philippine government fact-finding commission's report said a retired army general may be held responsible for a spate of extrajudicial killings, but the military dismissed this as unfair.