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Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Rise in human rights abuses noted after 9-11 attacks
HUMAN rights violations, especially against Muslims, have notably increased after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York three years ago.
This according to the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) during Tuesday morning's press conference as the nation commemorates the 32nd anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
TFDP executive director Aurora Parong said that from January to September 10, 2004 alone, they have recorded 341 victims of arbitrary arrest, 12 desapericidos, seven victims of salvaging (victims of summary killings in Davao City not included) and 38 victims of torture.
Parong said most of the tortured victims were Muslims from Mindanao and Manila who were said to be arrested for suspicion of being terrorists or members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) or the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), both linked to al-Qaeda network, a terror group believed to be behind the September 11 attacks.
She said most of those tortured were later found out to be leaders in their respective Muslim communities and not terrorists as initially suspected.
Parong said the victims usually underwent various form of torture ranging from electrocution, water therapy, use of plastic bags and many others that were previously used by the military during the martial law years.
The group said this just proves that nothing much has changed after the lifting of the martial law.
Parong said that after the Edsa Revolution in 1986, there are still 239 political prisoners.
Seven of who are elderly, five women and seven sickly.
She revealed that 42 of these political detainees are in Northern/Southern Mindanao.
Parong said the oldest and the only remaining political prisoner during the Marcos regime is Eutichio Cherigeni who is said to be still languishing in a jail in the Visayas.
From the declaration of martial law until before the Edsa Revolution, TFDP recorded 2,287 arrested individuals, 706 desapericidos, 2,491 salvaged and 154 tortured.
"Thirty-two years after the martial law, the memories of that repressive time remain vivid and alive. For the victims and their families, it is the pain of losing a loved one, of the years spent in prison, of the trauma of torture, it is the never-ending search for the missing and the longing for their coming home," Parong said. (BOT)
(September 22, 2004 issue)
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