MANILA — Anakpawis Representative and political detainee Crispin Beltran today said that the worsening election-related violence in the country is related to the seemingly endless spate of extra-judicial killings targeting political activists and human rights advocates.
MANILA — The Families of Desaparecidos for Justice
(DESAPARECIDOS) condemned the disappearance of Jonas
Joseph Burgos and Melisa Reyes, on April 28, in Quezon
City.
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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)
A series of massacres of civilians in Sulu, including those of two grandchildren of an MNLF leader, provoked the latest wave of fighting between government troops and the Moro revolutionary group.
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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.?
Related stories:
Grecil?s Parents File Raps Vs Soldiers; Holganza Doubts Girl Was Child Warrior
2 ComVal Residents Killed, 3 Others Wounded in Army Shooting
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