The human rights situation of the Moro people and the rest of the Filipino people are one and the same. We are called terrorists, communist fronts and destabilizers. We are being killed and arrested arbitrarily. We have no rights in this country, no dignity as we are paraded and tagged as terrorists. Our president applauds the killers.
I know in my heart that Alston earnestly and seriously considers our human rights situation in this country. I have seen him listen earnestly to victims and read seriously the cases presented to him. One case was the testimony of the relatives of Rahman Camili, a member of our partylist organization Suara Bangsamoro, who was shot and wounded in December 2006 and is missing up to now. Although technically it falls under another UN rapporteur’s desk, as Alston has pointed out, the Camili case merits attention because Camili had been twice forcibly abducted and accused of being a terrorist.
In the first instance, he was presented as a terrorist by no less than Arroyo, but was released by the courts for lack of evidence. In this second abduction, the family is afraid that the reason why Camili has not surfaced is that he might have been dead already.
Arroyo has been receiving a pat in the back from the American government for killing terrorists in Mindanao, for “destroying” terrorist cells. She continually receives economic and military aid form the US government in return for providing base and area for combat for the US troops stationed in our country.
Will the comrades of Alston in the UN listen to our plea? Will the countries representing the United Nations reprimand our government for its crimes against the people?
(Amirah Ali Lidasan is the national vice-chairperson of the Suara Bangsamoro partylist organization. She can be reached at suarabm@yahoo.com. Click here to view her previous column.)
[tags]davao today, mindanao, moros, muslim, mnlf, human rights, philip alston, united nations, extrajudicial killings, suara bangsamoro, terrorism, sulu, gloria macapagal-arroyo, philippines[/tags]
Extrajudicial Killings, Terrorism
