Ending killings should top Aquino agenda: HRW
MANILA — New York-based Human Rights Watch called on President Benigno S. Aquino III on Tuesday to adopt concrete measures to end the killings of activists allegedly by government security forces and militias.
In a letter delivered to Malacañang Palace today, Human Rights Watch recommended to Aquino six specific steps to combat extrajudicial killings:
1) Investigate police and military personnel implicated in killings and emphasize that law enforcement officers who fail to investigate such killings vigorously will themselves face investigation on criminal or disciplinary charges.
2) Take immediate steps to protect the witnesses to human rights abuses and their families.
3) Pass a law to criminalize and prevent enforced disappearances.
4) Abolish militia forces.
5) Institute tougher controls on local government procurement of weapons.
6) Dismantle “death squads” and investigate government involvement.
“President Aquino takes office at a time when the Philippines faces daunting human rights challenges,” said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Now he needs to turn his promises into action by taking immediate steps to end the widespread killings and hold the killers and those who deploy them accountable.”
The group recalled Aquino’s inauguration speech on June 30, 2010, when he said: “There can be no reconciliation without justice. When we allow crimes to go unpunished, we give consent to their occurring over and over again.” He ordered the newly appointed justice secretary, Leila de Lima, to “begin the process of providing true and complete justice for all.”
Since June 9, when Congress proclaimed Aquino the next president, three journalists and a key witness to the November 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre have been killed. Since Aquino’s inauguration on June 30, another journalist and four leftist activists have been killed, while the former lawyer of a massacre witness and a journalist survived separate murder attempts.
The international watchdog noted that out of hundreds of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances since 2001, there have been only six successfully prosecuted cases, resulting in the conviction of 11 defendants. None of those convicted has been of an active member of the military, despite considerable evidence of military involvement in such crimes.
“In numerous provinces, ruling families use militia forces and local police as their private armies,” Pearson said. “As one who has personally suffered as a result of a government-instigated killing, Aquino more than most would recognize that ending such killings would be an important and lasting legacy of his administration.”
Scrap Oplan Bantay Laya
In a separate statement, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said Aquino’s instructions to the military to uphold human rights in its counter-insurgency campaign will not amount to much if the Arroyo-era counter-insurgency policy of the government is not scrapped.
“It makes little difference if Aquino will order the AFP [Armed Forced of the Philippines] to respect human rights even as it maintains Arroyo’s bloody counter-insurgency program known as Oplan Bantay Laya that has targeted unarmed activists. It appears that Aquino does not recognize that the problem is the policy and the overall lack of accountability within the armed forces,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes Jr.
“By saying that many of the killings are motivated by personal reasons and not by a state policy of the past, Aquino is effectively turning a blind eye to the gross and systematic human rights abuses started by the Arroyo regime and continuing under his watch. Is Aquino now implying that the killings of hundreds of activists are unrelated and merely coincidental since there was and is no state policy?” Reyes added.
Bayan said that many respected international bodies including the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have all pointed to a state policy of targeting unarmed activists within the framework of the AFP’s counter-insurgency drive.
“It has been well established that a policy exists. This policy seems to have been carried over by the AFP from the previous government. Oplan Bantay Laya is a continuing policy hence the recent murders of members of progressive groups. If Mr. Aquino doesn’t find anything wrong with this policy, then we can expect worse days ahead for activists,” Reyes said.
Bayan welcomed Aquino’s announcement that it will go after lawbreakers in uniform but said that unless the counter-insurgency program Bantay Laya is abandoned, the human rights abuses will continue.
Reyes added that Aquino should seriously rethink his notion that most of the killings are personal and not part of any state policy. “He is in effect absolving the AFP and even Mrs. Arroyo of any previous wrongdoing. By saying that there is no existing policy, even one carried over from the past regime, he is tacitly emboldening the perpetrators,” Reyes said.
Bayan urged Aquino to implement recommendations of UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston and Human Rights Watch. Mr. Aquino should not rely on the reports given by the inutile Task Force Usig which has not made any significant headway in arresting the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings.
Bayan said that Aquino’s need to gain the support of the AFP for the stability of its administration will remain a major stumbling block to stopping the killings and holding officials accountable. The group also assailed continuing US support for the bloody counter-insurgency policy as another factor why the program continues.
“What is even alarming is that the AFP, despite its numerous human rights abuses, continues to receive huge military aid from the US government. This is another reason why the counter-insurgency policy remains unchanged. Not only does it have domestic support, it enjoys support from Washington,” Reyes said. (PINOYPRESS.NET)
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