RP must act on Melo report, says Magsaysay laureate By Norman Bordadora Inquirer Last updated 08:32pm (Mla time) 01/30/2007 MANILA, Philippines -- A Magsaysay Awards laureate urged the Philippine government to implement the recommendations of the Melo Commission to make top military generals accountable for the series of killings against leftwing activists. Dita Indah Sari, head of the National Front for Indonesian Labor Struggle and Magsaysay Awardee for Emerging Leadership in 2001, said that as in her country, the Philippine government appeared averse to the idea of taking its military top brass to account. "We face a similar problem in Indonesia in terms of inquiries of human rights problems. We have a national commission on human rights. But the government didn't want to make steps to follow them," Indah Sari told reporters. Indah Sari, along with other members of leftwing organizations from Asia, Europe and South America, is in Manila to attend the Asian Conference on Participatory Democracy and Alternative Forms of Popular Power at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Participants in the conference were sought for comment in reaction to retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Melo's comments that the commission he chaired to look into the series of alleged political killings found the need to make military generals, particularly the retired Major General Jovito Palparan, responsible for the slays. "It is very much clear that the states are behind this to protect their own clique. The people who do this are the top generals, top military officials. They are the untouchables. The governments didn't want to have conflicts with these people," Indah Sari said. She cited the case of Indonesian human rights campaigner Munir Said Thalib who was poisoned while on board a flight of the state-owned Garuda Indonesia in September 2004. Indonesian intelligence agents and military top brass were linked to the assassination but a lone former Garuda pilot was found guilty of poisoning him with arsenic. Allegations that the suspect was acting on orders from supposed masterminds were reportedly not taken up during the trial. The Indonesian Supreme Court, however, cleared the pilot, Pollycarpus Priyanto, of the crime in October 2006 citing insufficient evidence. "The announcement of the results is not enough. It is the responsibility of the government to take concrete steps," Indah Sari said. Indah Sari said international pressure was imperative to spur the concerned governments to make the appropriate move regarding the human rights case based on recommendations by a fact-finding body. "In our case, when the report was released and its recommendations were not followed, we brought it to the international media. The international community was asking the Indonesian government, why aren't you doing what the mission was saying?" Indah Sari said. "The international pressure will humiliate the government," she added. American Vera-Zavala of Sweden's Left International Forum said making one military general accountable would not solve the problem of extra-judicial killings in the country. "I'm quite sure this extreme amount of people killed is not due to one single general. It would be a very unique country if only one general is responsible for all this," Vera-Zavala said. She added that the European Union had known about the series of killings in the country and continued to monitor the matter. "(Participants in the conference) will be meeting with families of victims of the killings. I'm sure there will be statements that will be issued (afterwards)," she said. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo formed the commission in August amid almost weekly killings of left-wing party members and activists. Human rights groups, foreign chambers of commerce and the European Union have questioned the government's resolve to prosecute the perpetrators. The Philippine human rights group Karapatan has listed more than 800 people allegedly gunned down by security forces since 2001. It was unclear how many of those had been investigated by the Melo Commission. Copyright 2007 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.