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Monday, November 21, 2005
Summary killings scored in Asian meet
CEBU CITY -- Summary executions of people by so-called vigilantes are not crimes against humanity. They are not genocide that falls under the International Criminal Court (ICC). But they are crimes under Philippine laws and they violate human rights.
This was gathered by Sun.Star Cebu from international law experts at the First Southeast Asia Conference of Journalists on the International Criminal Court held Thursday and Friday at the Hotel Rembrandt in Quezon City.
Summary killings are crimes and violations of human rights, the lawyers said.
The unsolved murders in Cebu and Davao were raised at the conference with the inquiry whether they are triable by the ICC, which is based in Hague.
Cebu City has chalked up 104 extra-judicial killings since late December 2004 while Davao City has recorded 169 since January this year.
The ICC tries genocide and crimes against humanity but only in conflicts between states or within a state and only when the local state fails to stop and punish the crimes.
Vigilante killings of crime suspects do not fall under the ICC jurisdiction.
However, one lawyer said, summary murders violate the Revised Penal Code and are triable by Philippine courts. They also trample human rights.
The authorities are legally and morally bound to stop extrajudicial murders, conference participants asked by Sun.Star Cebu said.
Participants
Aside from Judge Sang-Hyun Song of ICC and UP Diliman public international law professor Herminio Harry L. Roque Jr., journalists from Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, Burma and the Philippines participated in the regional forum.
In Cebu City, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said solution to the killings is the least of his priorities.
He has been unfazed by the high figure in the crime index, arguing that the killings may have caused the drop in the number of petty crimes against property.
Sang-Hyun told Sun.Star Cebu that the best incentive for foreign investors is a criminal justice system that works. An honest and competent judiciary and effective law enforcement can attract the foreign investments that a country needs.
Breakdown of law
Critics of vigilantism argue that summary killings indicate a breakdown of the criminal justice system in which the police fail to catch murderers and prosecutors and courts fail to send them to jail.
The conference was organized by the Coalition for International Criminal Court-Asia and the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court.
It was supported by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Embassy of Sweden, and Planethood Foundation.
The conference aimed to highlight the importance of the journalists' role in maintaining the rule of law in solving domestic, regional and international conflicts and to get the active support of journalists in the campaign for the ratification and implementation of the Rome treaty establishing the ICC.
Signatures
The Rome treaty of the ICC already has 139 signatures and 100 accessions and ratifications in six years since its adoption in 1998.
The Philippines has not ratified the treaty and the US has worked against it by forging "no surrender" bilateral agreements with various countries.
Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. was keynote speaker last Thursday, calling for the adoption of the Rome treaty. (PAS/Sun.Star Cebu)
(November 21, 2005 issue)
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