Indonesia to demolish football stadium where crush killed 133

Rfi – AFP, 18 October 2022 

Gianni Infantino vowed to help the Indonesian government "reform and
transform" the country's football ADEK BERRY AFP

Jakarta (AFP) – The Indonesian football stadium where a stampede killed 133 people will be torn down and rebuilt, President Joko Widodo said Tuesday, as the head of FIFA pledged to help "reform and transform" the sport in the country. 

Gianni Infantino met Widodo in the capital Jakarta, just over two weeks after the tragedy, and a year before the Under-20 World Cup is due to be held in the Southeast Asian nation. 

More than 40 children were among those killed in the city of Malang, East Java on October 1, in what Infantino described as "one of the darkest days for football". 

After supporters invaded the pitch at the end of a league match between Arema FC and rivals Persebaya Surabaya, police fired tear gas into packed stands, sparking a stampede. 

"For Kanjuruhan stadium in Malang, we will demolish and rebuild it according to FIFA standards," Widodo told reporters. 

He said the replacement stadium will have "proper facilities that can ensure the safety of both players and supporters". 

"We will reform and transform football in this country," Infantino added, flanking Widodo. 

His assurances came as hospital officials said a 33-year-old man had died from injuries sustained in the crush, bringing the confirmed death toll to 133. 

"What I can guarantee to all the people of Indonesia: FIFA is here with you, FIFA is here to stay, FIFA is here to work in a very close partnership with the government, with the Asian Football Confederation and with the federation of Indonesia," Infantino said. 

The main focus would be improving stadium operations and fan behaviour, he added, as well as creating programmes for football in schools. 

"We will bring our experts, we will help and invest and we will make sure that Indonesia shines on the global football stage." 

Widodo said he agreed with FIFA "on a thorough transformation of Indonesian football to ensure all aspects of the matches follow the international safety standards". 

Safety review

The gates at the 42,000-capacity Kanjuruhan stadium, which was opened in 2004, were big enough to fit only two people at a time and some were not open when the disaster struck, officials have said. 

Infantino said FIFA would work with the Indonesian government to ensure the Under-20 World Cup can go ahead safely. 

The youth tournament is scheduled to take place in May-June 2023, in multiple cities across the archipelago nation. 

Three police officers are among six people who have been charged over the tragedy. 

An investigating task force has called on the country's football association chief and all of its executive committee members to resign. 

It also found that more than three hours of footage from CCTV in the main lobby and parking area of the stadium had gone missing. 

Representatives from FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have been in Jakarta since last week to investigate what happened, along with the national FA and the government. 

Widodo has suspended all football matches until the probe is complete and ordered a safety review of all stadiums.

Dutch King Returns Prince Diponegoro's Golden Kris to Jokowi

Jakarta Globe, 10 March 2020

From left, Dutch Queen Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, Dutch King Willem-Alexander, 

President Joko Widodo and Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim observe 

Prince Diponegoro's golden kris at the Bogor Palace in Bogor, West Java, on Tuesday. 

(Antara Photo/Sigid Kurniawan)

Jakarta. After nearly two centuries, a golden kris belonging to Indonesia's national hero Prince Diponegoro was returned by the Dutch King Willem-Alexander, here on a three-day state visit with Queen Máxima and a 130-strong delegation, to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo at the Bogor Palace on Tuesday.

The golden kris was placed in a glass box not far from the podium where President Jokowi and King Willem-Alexander held a joint press statement.

Education and Culture Minister Nadiem Makarim was seen explaining how the golden kris came into Dutch hands to the President and the King.

The Dutch government had returned several of Prince Diponegoro's belongings in 1968, but the golden kris was not included. 

The kris was reportedly lost but was later found at the Volkenkunde Museum in Leiden.

A team of Dutch and Indonesian researchers has confirmed the authenticity of the golden kris.

Prince Diponegoro was a Javanese royal, the eldest son of Sultan Hamengkubuwono III of Yogyakarta, who led a crusade against Dutch colonial rule in the 1825-1830 Java War.

The war, in which 200,000 people died including 8,000 Dutch, ended with the prince's capture on March 28, 1830.

His famous golden kris was seized by the Dutch government during his famous capture when he was tricked into a fake negotiation – the subject of one of Indonesian painter Raden Saleh's most well-known paintings.

Colonel Jan-Baptist Cleerens gave Prince Diponegoro's golden kris as a gift to King Willem I in 1831.

Apart from returning the heirloom to Indonesia, the Dutch royal visit is intended to increase bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and the Netherlands.

"This is an excellent opportunity to work together for a future relationship between Indonesia and the Netherlands," King Willem-Alexander said.

Thousands in shelters as Indonesia flood death toll hits 60

Yahoo – AFP, Haeril HALIM, Ganis Bungsu, January 4, 2020

Indonesian villagers use inner tubes to deliver supplies across a river at Banjar
Irigasi in Lebak, Banten province (AFP Photo/SAMMY)

Jakarta (AFP) - Indonesian rescue teams flew helicopters stuffed with food to remote flood-hit communities on Saturday as the death toll from the disaster jumped to 60 and fears grew about the possibility of more torrential rain.

Tens of thousands in Jakarta were still unable to return to their waterlogged homes after some of the deadliest flooding in years hit the enormous capital region, home to about 30 million.

In neighbouring Lebak, where half a dozen people died, police and military personnel dropped boxes of instant noodles and other supplies into remote communities inaccessible by road after bridges were destroyed.

"It's tough to get supplies in there... and there are about a dozen places hit by landslides," Tomsi Tohir -- the police chief of Banten province, where Lebak is located -- told AFP.

"That is why we're using helicopters although there aren't any landing spots."

Local health centre chief Suripto, who goes by one name, said injured residents were flowing into his clinic.

"Some of them were wounded after they were swept away by floods and hit with wood and rocks," he said.

Around Jakarta, more than 170,000 people took refuge in shelters across the massive urban conglomeration after whole neighbourhoods were submerged.

Map of Jakarta showing the areas affected by flooding (AFP Photo)

Torrential rains that started on New Year's Eve unleashed flash floods and landslides.

Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said on Saturday that two people were also killed after flash floods and landslides hit a village in North Sulawesi on Friday.

The agency said Saturday the total death toll had climbed to 60 with two people still missing.

"We've discovered more dead bodies," said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Agus Wibowo.

'Trauma healing'

Jakarta shelters filled up with refugees, including infants, resting on thin mats as food and drinking water ran low.

Some had been reduced to using floodwater for cleaning.

"We're cleaning ourselves in a nearby church but the time has been limited since it uses an electric generator for power," said Trima Kanti, 39, from one refuge in Jakarta's western edges.

In hard-hit Bekasi, on the eastern outskirts of Jakarta, swamped streets were littered with debris and crushed cars lying on top of each other -- with waterline marks reaching as high as the second floors of buildings.

People wait to get fresh water from a truck in their flood affected village in Bekasi, 

West Java (AFP Photo/REZAS)

On Friday, the government said it would start cloud seeding to the west of the capital -- inducing rain using chemicals sprayed from planes -- in the hope of preventing more rain reaching the city region.

Water has receded in many areas and power was being restored in hundreds of districts.

The health ministry has said it had deployed some 11,000 health workers and soldiers to distribute medicine, disinfectant hygiene kits and food in a bid to stave off outbreaks of Hepatitis A, mosquito-borne Dengue fever and other illnesses, including infections linked to contact with dead animals.

Visiting hard-hit Lebak, Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said the government would help rebuild destroyed schools and construct temporary bridges, while offering assistance to victims.

"We're also asking for NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to help with trauma healing," Muhadjir told reporters on Saturday.

Electrocution, drowning

Around Jakarta, a family -- including a four- and nine-year-old -- died of suspected gas poisoning from a portable power generator, while an eight-year-old boy was killed in a landslide.

Indonesia's disaster agency said the death toll from the heavy flooding had 

climbed to 60 (AFP Photo/BAY ISMOYO)

Others died from drowning or hypothermia, while one 16-year-old boy was electrocuted by a power line.

Jakarta is regularly hit by floods during the rainy season, which started in late November.

But this week marked Jakarta's deadliest flooding since 2013 when dozens were killed after the city was inundated by monsoon rains.

Urban planning experts said the disaster was partly due to record rainfall.

But Jakarta's myriad infrastructure problems, including poor drainage and rampant overdevelopment, have worsened the situation, they said.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has announced a plan to move the country's capital to Borneo island to take pressure off Jakarta, which suffers from some of the world's worst traffic jams and is fast sinking due to excessive groundwater extraction.)

Indonesia mourns 15 years after Boxing Day tsunami

Yahoo – AFP, December 26, 2019

Nurhayati, 65 (R), who lost her 17-year-old daughter in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami
and is still traumatized, prays at a cemetery containing mass graves in Siron, in
Indonesia's Aceh province on December 26, 2019 (AFP Photo/CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN)

Banda Aceh (Indonesia) (AFP) - Thousands of mourners flocked to mass graves Thursday in Indonesia's Aceh province to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters in history.

On a grassy field in Aceh Besar district where at least 47,000 victims were laid to rest, family members and relatives prayed, scattered flower petals and comforted each other.

Among them was Nurhayati who lost her youngest daughter in the disaster.

"I came here every year because I miss her so much, she was only 17, just started college," the 65-year-old told AFP, sobbing.

"It's been 15 years but even until now every time I see an ocean, even on TV, I shudder and feel like a big wave would be coming soon," she said.

Many people who lost loved ones in the disaster do not know where they were 

buried. Here, a woman walks past people praying at a cemetery containing mass 

graves in Siron, in Indonesia's Aceh province (AFP Photo/CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN)

Almost 170,000 were killed in Aceh province alone when a 9.1 magnitude undersea quake struck the predominantly Muslim province on December 26, 2004, triggering massive tsunami waves that also killed another 50,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, even as far as Somalia.

Some half a million people were left homeless by the catastrophe that destroyed much of the province.

Muhammad Ikramullah was only 13 when the tsunami hit, killing his parents and younger sibling. He spent years moving around, living with relatives and his parents' friends until he was able to provide for himself.

A cemetery in Ulee Lheue, Banda Aceh, contains mass graves of victims from the 

2004 tsunami which killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean -- 

most of them in Indonesia's Aceh province (AFP Photo/CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN)

"I am still traumatised, I don't think I will ever forget what happened," the 28-year-old said.

The remains of his family have never been found, but like most people who visit the mass grave every year, Ikramullah only wanted to pray for his loved ones even though their bodies might not be buried there.

Years after the disaster, bodies are still being discovered. In 2018, the remains of dozens of people were found in a newly built housing complex.

Some have never found where their family members were buried.

Indonesian tsunami survivor Jony, 48 (R), and his daughter (L) pray at a cemetery 

containing mass graves in Siron, Aceh province, on the 15th anniversary of the disaster 
which killed 170,000 people in the province (AFP Photo/CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN)

"I don't know where my mother was buried," Jony China told AFP.

"But I keep coming here because I have a feeling she was close," he said.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to it position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide.

Last year a tsunami triggered by a volcanic earthquake killed nearly 500 people in Banten province.

Related Articles:

As world honours the dead, Indonesia begins tsunami memorials

"Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

“… Mass Human Death

The final one, dear Human, is the hardest one for my partner and the one we wish to leave you with in this channeling tonight. This is the one that my partner doesn't want to even have me talk about. It's the appropriateness of mass death. For you, built in to your very essence is the honor for life, and the sorrow when it passes. It's correct and appropriate that this is there, and never let it be tempered. But the wisdom of understanding is also needed to help you get past some challenges of the Human heart.

"Dear Kryon, was the tsunami really necessary?" Yes it was. Almost 200,000 Human Beings passed over. It's an event that for you is filled with horror, sorrow, emotion, and challenge. Back in 1989, we told you of those that might have to leave the earth en masse, and here it is. Yet even my partner [Lee] asks the questions, "Why the children? Why the poorest parts of the earth? Why the seeming inappropriateness of all this death?"

And I say to you the same thing I said with respect to Terri: Do you understand yet that death is often as precious as life on this planet of many energies and lessons? They are not gone! They're all here [speaking from Kryon's perspective]. They're having a great time! They're joyful! It seems like a moment ago they leaned into the wind of birth with us beside them. We said, "How would you like to participate in an event that will change the compassion factor of the planet so that energies can move forward and provide faster acceleration of vibratory shift? How would you like to help create peace on earth through a consciousness shift within Gaia itself? And they said, "Show us the way!"

Do you understand why we are in love with humanity... that you would love the earth and the Universe so much that you would go through these things? So much of what you see is horrible tragedy, yet you're looking at the heroes of humanity as they deliver a gift that will change the very fabric of Gaia through the compassion created as a wave of humanity responds to their plight.

They knew the potentials and they went through with it. Even the children knew, for they're old souls within their divinity. There was so much compassion created at that time, in that one week, the earth has never seen anything like it in your lifetime. Billions of Humans were involved with a compassion that instantly went to the core of the planet. It went into the earth and it's still there. It changed the actual energy of where you walk and it planted a seeds that will grow that will indeed emerge later in Israel, and those surrounding Israel.

And that's what it's about. Yet some of you didn't want to hear that, did you? But they're here, with me now... and with you as well. How could you fit them all in this room, you might ask? They can fit on the head of a pin! That's interdimensional talk. They can go home in your purse or your pocket! That's interdimensional talk, too. And they've got a message for you that we've given before, but you can't hear it enough: "We did our part - now you do yours, Lighthouse! For the ones who remain are the only ones who can manipulate the tools we have helped create."

When you go home tonight, you're not going to be in a survival situation - in a tent in a tribe with no lights or clean water, with no food. You're not going to be in sorrow or despair. Instead, you go home to a warm place with plenty of food and friendship and the love of family. That's why you're the Lighthouses, because you have time for it. You've got the intellect for it. You're not in survival mode, as is so much of humanity on the earth. You have the education for it and the intuition for it. Now, do you understand why there are so many Lighthworkers in the western world? It's because your culture has created a situation where there's abundance of these things, and it allows you to lead the way in changing the energy of earth, instead of having all your time spent just trying to survive. Does this help you understand the responsibility of what you have before you?

Strike the light and send it to the Sudanese. Strike light and send it to those dark places with governments where there's corruption. Strike the light and send it to the scientists and researchers who already have the cures for the more virulent diseases on the planet, but can't begin their work due to the barriers of certain leadership and their old ways. Strike the light and send it to Israel and Palestine and get on with this solution! This is why you're here, and this is the agreement you made when you arrived and selected the culture you live in.

Achievable in your lifetime, it is. Peace and compassion will prevail. You shall see. You shall see.

And so it is.

Kryon

Saudi Arabia to enforce 'decency' amid tourism push

Yahoo – AFP, September 28, 2019

Saudi Arabia on Friday said citizens from 49 countries are eligible for online
e-visas or visas on arrival (AFP Photo/Fayez Nureldine)

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia on Saturday said it would impose fines for violations of "public decency", including immodest clothing and public displays of affection, a day after the austere kingdom opened up to foreign tourists.

The interior ministry said it had identified 19 such "offences" but did not specify the penalties, as the ultra-conservative Islamic country begins issuing tourist visas for the first time as part of a push to diversify its oil-reliant economy.

"The new regulations require men and women to dress modestly and to refrain from public displays of affection. Women are free to choose modest clothing," a statement said.

"The regulations are meant to ensure that visitors and tourists in the kingdom are aware of the law relating to public behaviour so that they comply with it."

Saudi Arabia on Friday said citizens from 49 countries are now eligible for online e-visas or visas on arrival, including the United States, Australia and several European nations.

Kickstarting tourism is one of the centrepieces of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 reform programme to prepare the biggest Arab economy for a post-oil era.

But the conservative country, which forbids alcohol and is notorious for sex segregation, is seen as an unlikely destination for global tourists aside from Muslim pilgrims visiting holy sites in Mecca and Medina.

Men and women must avoid "tight fitting clothing" or clothes with "profane language or images", read an instruction on an English language website launched by the tourism authority.

"Women should cover shoulders and knees in public," it added.

But tourism chief Ahmed al-Khateeb said foreign women were not obligated to wear the body-shrouding abaya robe that is still mandatory public wear for Saudi women.

Prince Mohammed has sought to shake off his country's ultra-conservative image -- lifting a ban on cinemas and women drivers while allowing gender-mixed concerts and sporting extravaganzas.

The relaxed social norms in a kingdom have been welcomed by many Saudis, two-thirds of whom are under 30.

But new public decency guidelines, first approved by cabinet in April, are widely perceived to be vague and have sparked public concern that they would be open to interpretation.

They have also stoked fears of a revival of morality policing.

Saudi Arabia's religious police once elicited widespread fear, chasing men and women out of malls to pray and berating anyone seen mingling with the opposite sex.

But the bearded enforcers of public morality, whose powers have been clipped in recent years, are now largely out of sight.

Saudi Arabia is attempting a comeback on the global stage one year after journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder, but the crisis has weakened it and undermined its de facto leader's ambitious reforms, analysts say https://t.co/em7O5M25Ec pic.twitter.com/ZKdK9Nqwa6

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 29 september 2019

A personal bodyguard of Saudi Arabia's King Salman has been shot dead and seven others wounded, including security forces, during an altercation at a friend's home, authorities said https://t.co/25K67KmJ0d pic.twitter.com/SKz9nsf8dB

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 29 september 2019

Dutch tourist killed in Malaysia cave floods, guide missing

CNA – AFP, 13 July 2019

Peter Hans Hovenkamp, 66, was from Utrecht in the central Netherlands.
(Photo: Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department)

KUALA LUMPUR: Flash floods killed a Dutch tourist in a popular cave located in the rugged Mulu National Park on Malaysia's Borneo island, an official said Saturday (Jul 13), as a search continues for a missing guide.

Local fire and rescue chief Law Poh Kiong identified the dead man as 66-year-old Peter Hans Hovenkamp from Utrecht in the central Netherlands.

"He died due to drowning following flash floods in the caves. His body was found in a river inside the cave and was taken to the Miri public hospital for a post-mortem on Saturday," he told AFP.

Law said a search-and-rescue operation involving 16 officers had been launched to locate 20-year local tour guide Roviezal Robin.

This handout from the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department taken and released
on Jul 13, 2019 shows the body of Dutch tourist Peter Hans Hovenkamp being carried
out of Mulu National Park on the island of Borneo. (Photo: AFP/Sarawak Fire and
Rescue Department)

Eight other tourists in the same group "almost become victims" but fled to higher ground and escaped from being washed into the river, Law added.

Hovenkamp was reported missing on Friday while the group was touring the popular "Deer Cave", home to an estimated three million bats which form amazing patterns in the sky when they leave each dusk.

Mulu park, located in the remote Borneo jungle of Sarawak state and famous for its caves, cliffs and gorges, is a UNESCO world heritage site.

It sees thousands of visitors annually, particularly for its cooling rains during the summer months.

Law described the death as "a freak tragedy."

Holiday island mourns after bus crash kills 29 German tourists

Yahoo – AFP, Jerome Pin, April 18, 2019

The bus plunged down a 10-metre slope with around 50 people on board
(AFP Photo/STRINGER)

Caniço (Portugal) (AFP) - Portugal and Germany mourned on Thursday after 29 German tourists died when their bus tumbled down a slope and crashed into a house on the tourist island of Madeira.

Drone footage showed the mangled wreckage lying against a building on a hillside near the town of Canico, the vehicle's roof partially crushed and front window smashed.

Rescue workers attended to injured passengers on the grass where the bus rested nearby, some of them bearing bloodied head bandages and blood-stained clothes.

A woman who survived the accident said on the TVI television channel that the bus crashed after hitting a wall.

"It happened just after the bus started, one minute or a few seconds later. People were flying through the windows," said the woman, who was not named.

"Some people were crying for help and we could immediately see some people were dead," said her husband, who also survived the crash. "Help arrived very fast."

Rescue workers helped survivors at the crash site (AFP Photo/RUI SILVA)

Local authorities said most of the dead were aged in their 40s and 50s. Twelve men and 17 women were among the victims, an official at the Nelio Mendonca hospital, Tomasia Alves, told reporters.

They were among the more than one million tourists who visit the Atlantic islands off the coast of Morocco each year, attracted by their subtropical climate and rugged volcanic terrain.

"It is with sadness and dismay that I think of our compatriots and all the other people affected by the terrible bus accident in Madeira," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement.

"My sincere condolences go above all to those families that have lost loved ones in this tragedy," she added, thanking the Portuguese emergency services for their efforts.

The bus was only five years old and has been recently inspected, officials 

said (AFP Photo/RUI SILVA)

Investigation launched

Witnesses and officials said the 50-odd tourists had left their hotel on their way to the regional capital Funchal for dinner when the bus crashed on Wednesday.

Local media said two Portuguese nationals survived the crash: the driver and a tour guide.

Prosecutors have opened a probe. The vice-president of the regional government Pedro Calado said it was "premature" to attribute the cause of the accident.

He said the bus was five years old and had been recently inspected.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he would travel to Madeira on Thursday with a team of doctors and psychologists to "speak personally with those affected".

The injured were "in a state of shock, with memories of terrible images. An injured woman said she had lost her partner," Ilse Everlien Berardo, the pastor at the German Evangelical church in Madeira, told Germany's RTL network.

Wellwishers left flowers for the victims (AFP Photo/MIGUEL RIOPA)

Frankfurt-based tour operator Trendtours said 51 of its customers were involved in the accident. Another company, Schauinsland, said it also had two customers in the crash.

The companies sent their condolences to victims' families and said they were sending teams to Madeira to offer support.

Trendtour said the bus had been hired by a local operator and crashed off the road "for a reason still unknown".

Makeshift morgue

A makeshift morgue has been set up at the airport in Funchal, local media reports said. Medical teams will be flown in from Lisbon to carry out autopsies.

German holidaymakers were the second largest group after British tourists to visit Madeira in 2017, according to Madeira's tourism office.

Madeira lies in the Atlantic off the coast of Morocco (AFP 

Photo/Maria-Cecilia REZENDE)

Known as the Pearl of the Atlantic and the Floating Garden, Madeira is home to just 270,000 inhabitants.

The Portuguese government decreed three days of national mourning.

"I express the sorrow and solidarity of all the Portuguese people in this tragic moment, and especially for the families of the victims who I have been told were all German," President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told Portuguese television.

Alves said the hospital hoped to begin returning victims' bodies to their families by Saturday.

The last serious bus accident in Madeira occurred in December 2005, killing five Italian tourists in Sao Vicente.

Global executions at lowest level in a decade: Amnesty

Yahoo – AFP, April 10, 2019

Nooses hang at Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the outskirts of Kabul, Afganistan (AFP
Photo/WAKIL KOHSAR)

Executions fell worldwide by nearly a third last year to their lowest levels in at least a decade, but several countries recorded a rise, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

Use of the death penalty dropped in Iran -- by an eye-popping 50 percent, following a change to its anti-narcotics laws -- Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia, the rights group found in its annual review.

But it rose in Belarus, Japan, Singapore, South Sudan and the United States, while Thailand resumed executions for the first time in a decade and Sri Lanka threatened to follow suit.

"Despite regressive steps from some, the number of executions carried out by several of the worst perpetrators has fallen significantly," said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty International's Secretary General.

He added the "dramatic" drop globally proved that "even the most unlikely countries are starting to change their ways and realise the death penalty is not the answer".

"This is a hopeful indication that it's only a matter of time before this cruel punishment is consigned to history, where it belongs," Naidoo said.

In total, death penalty figures fell around the world from at least 993 in 2017, to at least 690 last year.

Amnesty's count excludes China -- the world's top executioner -- where the numbers are classified as a state secret.

The organisation estimates thousands of people are sentenced to death and executed there every year.

Graphic on executions worldwide, according to a 2018 report by Amnesty 

International (AFP Photo/Gal ROMA)

Iran (253), Saudi Arabia (149), Vietnam (at least 85) and Iraq (at least 52) were the other countries that resorted to the death penalty most in 2018.

Vietnamese authorities' decision to release figures for last year was "unprecedented" for the southeast Asian nation, Amnesty noted.

Elsewhere Japan, Singapore and South Sudan reported their highest levels of executions in years.

Naidoo said these three countries "now form a dwindling minority" and challenged them "to act boldly and put a stop to this abhorrent punishment".

Amnesty also noted concern over a sharp spike in the number of death sentences imposed in some countries -- particularly Iraq and Egypt -- over the course of 2018.

But its annual review found the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty had gathered steam.

Burkina Faso adopted a new penal code effectively banning executions, while Gambia and Malaysia both declared an official moratorium.

Meanwhile, courts in the US state of Washington declared the death penalty unconstitutional there.

Amnesty highlighted a December vote by the United Nations General Assembly that saw 121 countries support a global moratorium on the death penalty, with only 35 states opposed.

"Slowly but steadily, global consensus is building towards ending the use of the death penalty," Naidoo said.