Monday, December 03, 2007 Group welcomes UN report on forced disappearances
THE United Nations (UN) report that confirmed allegations that the government may be behind forced disappearances of persons critical to the government, validated the allegations of peoples organizations, said the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA).
CHRA chairperson Beverly Longid said the Alston report corroborated the reports of peoples organizations that the assassination or disappearance of some of their members may have been carried out by either the police or the military.
"There is basis as far the pattern and capacity to carry out the crime," Longid said, recalling that the deaths of members of peoples organizations followed a common pattern -- victims were first put under close supervision then were shot by masked perpetrators who escaped using motorcycles as getaway vehicles.
Eyewitness accounts were also enough bases to conclude that the government is behind the deaths and disappearances of critics, Longid added.
The group meanwhile hoped that the writ of amparo would help solve the killings and enforced disappearances.
Longid said the writ could at least give headway in the location of missing people believed to have been abducted.
The writ which took effect last month, orders law enforcement agencies to show evidence that a missing person is not within their custody or that they have to find a way to locate a missing person.
As a supplement to the writ of amparo, the Supreme Court assured it would issue the writ of habeas data next month. (RO)
