RP political killings continue

MANILA, Philippines – Amnesty International asked President Arroyo yesterday to prosecute perpetrators of unexplained killings and enforced disappearances based on “international standards of fairness.”

Making the appeal in an open letter were 14 directors of the London-based human rights group from the United States, Japan, Germany, the European Union, France, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Austria, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines and the Netherlands.

Dr. Aurora Parong, AI-Philippines section director, said the government must protect witnesses to stop the killings and disappearances.

“Witnesses and families of victims must be able to step forward without fear of reprisal,” she said.

AI said political killings and forced disappearances have not ceased despite government efforts.

It has recorded at least 200 political killings and more than 200 enforced disappearances since 2001, AI added.

AI said victims typically have included members of left-wing groups, human rights organizations and trade unions, as well as journalists and church and indigenous leaders.

“(The attacks were) not an unconnected series of criminal murders but are part of a politically motivated pattern of killings,” AI said.

Chairman Leila de Lima of the Commission on Human Rights acknowledged the killings and disappearances were linked to the government’s military campaign to end the nearly 40-year-old communist insurgency.

“The victims of the ... killings were not the combatants,” De Lima said. “They were the thinkers, they were the ideologues.”

However, there has been a “significant reduction” in the number of political killings and disappearances since last year, De Lima said.

The Center for Women’s Resources (CWR), a research and training institute, said 30 women have been missing since Mrs. Arroyo came to power in 2001.

“Enforced disappearance is a clandestine repressive strategy committed by public authorities to spread terror within the society,” said Jojo Guan, CWR executive director.

“It turns human beings into non-beings, denying the right of persons to exist or to have an identity,” he said.

The CWR said a disappeared person becomes “totally defenseless” in the hands of his or her kidnappers, and that women-victims are “doubly jeopardized” because of their gender.

Women are “more vulnerable” to sexual abuse and rape, CWR added.

The CWR said women also bear severe suffering as they wait eternally for the return of their loved ones, especially mothers who are faced with the constant uncertainty about the whereabouts of their missing children or husband.

“The abductors abuse their powers with impunity and reduce law and order to something negligible,” Guan said. – Katherine Adraneda