Despite significant reforms to the death penalty system and new rules for foreign journalists in China, there is little evidence of improvement in other areas of human rights related to the Olympics — and there has been increasing repression of human rights activism and domestic journalism, said Amnesty International today.
Poster Child. Gregorio Galacio, the father of Grecil Buya, the nine-year-old New Bataan girl accused by the military of being a child combatant, talks to the press in Manila, where he and his wife Virginia Buya, right, earlier filed complaints against the soldiers who killed Grecil during a firefight with guerrillas on March 31. International human rights groups, including one from Japan, have denounced her death, calling it an atrocity that is connected to the Arroyo regime’s war on terror that have allegedly victimized civilians. (Photos courtesy of arkibongbayan.org)
The peace agreement might be up for review in a meeting organized by the Organization of Islamic Conference in July.
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In Compostela Valley?s villages, a de facto martial law exists. Civilians have been tortured, detained, harassed and killed as the military increases its presence in the resource-rich province in order to protect, according to residents and activists, plantation and mining companies. The deaths of Grecil Buya in March and the killing of two civilians by soldiers last Wednesday were the offshoots of yet another case of ?development aggression.?
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Davao Today is an affiliate publication of Alipato Media Center Inc. Email us here. C.C. Hidalgo Editor Cheryll D. Fiel Daisy C. Gonzales Germelina A. Lacorte Marilou M. Aguirre Jetty…