By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
An Indian magistrate on Thursday ordered the trial of five men accused in the fatal gang rape and beating of a young woman on a bus to be shifted to a special fast-track court in New Delhi.
Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista said in austere ceremonies led by President Benigno Aquino III that the 120,000-strong military needed to be freed up from counterinsurgency operations to allow government troops to focus on other urgent tasks, including strengthening the country's territorial defense.
Gen. Bautista, 54, said he was dedicating the final chapter of his military career to his father, a one-star army general who was gunned down with his men by Muslim rebels from the Moro National Liberation Front who had invited him to a peace dialogue in the coastal town of Patikul in October 1977 on Jolo island.
