Human Rights

UN Prober Raps Military, Gov’t for Killings

In a press statement distributed at a Manila press conference on Wednesday, Philip Alston, the special rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, outlined his findings during his 10-day investigation in the Philippines. Among his conclusions: evidence suggests that the military is behind most of the killings, the military is in a state of denial, an intensified counter-insurgency campaign (presumably Oplan Bantay Laya) is partly to blame for the increase in the atrocities, the Melo Commission and Task Force Usig are inadequate, and the military’s line that the killings are the result of purges within the communist movement “bears all the hallmarks of a fabrication and cannot be taken as evidence of anything other than disinformation.”

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Tales of Atrocities Confront UN Prober in Davao

By Tyrone A. Velez
davaotoday.com

DAVAO TODAY — They came from as far as Basilan, Agusan del Norte and Misamis Oriental. Some 30 people, who are families and survivors of extrajudicial killings and human-rights abuses presented their cases to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston who arrived in the city last Sunday as part of his 10-day visit to the country to investigate atrocities.

All in all, 20 cases from the six regions in Mindanao involving 33 violations — such as killings, frustrated killings, forced disappearances and harassments — were presented to Alston. Of the 20 cases, 10 came with testimonies. The presentation of cases were facilitated by Karapatan, the human-rights group.

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UN to Probe Extrajudicial Killings in Davao

Leftist groups and the military are jockeying for position and the opportunity to be heard by the United Nations rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, who is scheduled to arrive today in Davao City.


(davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)

By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com

Related story: Victims? Families Say UN Rep Visit Won?t Stop Killings

DAVAO CITY — The human-rights group Karapatan has prepared at least 20 cases of political killings in Mindanao that it would present to Philip Alston, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings who is scheduled to arrive here today.

The cases are among the grave human-rights abuses that if proven, Karapatan said, might blacklist the Philippines out of the group of nations that respect and uphold human rights.

The arrival here of Alston promises to be a battle of cases between progressive human rights groups on one hand and the government military and the police on the other as both sides try to wrest the opportunity to be heard by Alston.

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A Hope for Mindanao’s Moros

Zaynab Ampatuan, 27, hardly looks like one who has experienced being driven from home by bombs and bullets courtesy of the military. But she has ? and more than twice. Her experiences with the oppression of Muslims in the Philippines led her to become an advocate for the Moro cause.


Zaynab’s Cause. Suara Bangsamoro Party’s party-list nominee Zaynab Ampatuan speaks at a campaign rally in Manila, Feb. 13.(Bulatlat photo)

By Alexander Martin Remollino
Bulatlat

MANILA — Petite and slim Zaynab Ampatuan, 27, deputy secretary-general and one of the party-list nominees of the Suara Bangsamoro (Voice of the Moro People) Party for this year?s elections, hardly looks like one who has experienced being driven from home by bombs and bullets courtesy of the military. But she has ? and more than twice.

In 2000, then President Joseph Estrada declared ?all-out war? against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The ?all-out war? took a heavy toll mostly on civilians in Mindanao. Military offensives in areas claimed by authorities as MILF strongholds have sporadically taken place under the Arroyo regime, even as the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) is engaged in peace negotiations with the group.

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