AI urges Bush to stop military aid to RP 
By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer
Last updated 10:35pm (Mla time) 03/15/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Human rights watchdog Amnesty International 
urged the
Bush administration on Thursday to crack the whip on its Philippine
counterpart over unabated extra-judicial killings under the Arroyo 
administration.

Testifying before the United States Senate's hearing on these cases, T. 
Kumar,
AI advocacy director for Asia Pacific, said the US Embassy should be
"pro-active in identifying members of the Armed Forces of the 
Philippines who
may be involved in political killings."

"The US should give a strong and clear message to the government of the
Philippines that US-Philippines relations will suffer if the current 
trend in
political killings continues and if Philippine authorities fail to 
bring past
abusers to justice," he told the Senate foreign relations subcommittee 
on Asia.

Kumar specifically wanted the US government to "vigorously" implement 
the
Leahy Law which would bar it from providing military assistance to 
foreign
military units that violate human rights.

The Philippines is a major non-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty 
Organization) ally
by the US whose military assistance comes in the form of hefty cash 
donations,
equipment, and training. The focus is the fight against terrorism, 
including
the communist insurgency.

"Since the political killings in the Philippines are happening in the 
context
of communist insurgency, it is vital that the United States government 
report
to the appropriate Congressional committees the type of military 
assistance it
is giving to the government of the Philippines in its fight against the
community insurgency," according the Kumar.

The AI official also scored the Bush administration for "not publicly
condemning the Philippine government over the last four years while the
political killings increased."

"Not being vocal on this issue sends a wrong message to the government 
of the
Philippines," he said. "We urge the (Bush) administration to publicly 
condemn
the political killings and urge the creation of specific benchmarks for 
the
Philippine government to end these killings. We urge the (Bush) 
administration
to keep this issue as a matter of priority in all of its interactions 
with the
government of the Philippines."

The recommendations were contained in a lengthy paper he read before 
the
Senate committee. A copy of the paper titled "Extra-judicial Killings 
in the
Philippines: Strategies to End the Violence" was available at the 
website of
AI-United States.

The group also cited eight key recommendations for the Philippine 
government
to address the political killings. Militant groups have counted over 
800
killings since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power in 2001.

In his paper, Kumar said at least 51 political killings occurred in the 
first
half of 2006 alone, noting that AI recorded a total of 66 the year 
before.

He urged the Arroyo administration "not to treat (the issue) as a 
public
relations problem, but to take serious steps to find out who was behind 
these
systematic killings and to make public those findings."

He also called for the full implementation of the Melo Commission
recommendations, accept assistance from the United Nations and other
countries, allow international observers to monitor investigations and 
trials.

"It is a mystery why the government of the Philippines failed to 
address this
disturbing trend of political killings for all these years, despite the 
fact
that hundreds were killed for political reasons," Kumar said.

"The methodology of the attacks, including prior death threats, 
patterns of
surveillance by persons reportedly linked to the security forces, the 
leftist
profile of the victims, and a climate of impunity that has shielded the
perpetrators from prosecution, has led Amnesty International to 
conclude that
the attacks are not an unconnected series of criminal murders but 
constitute a
politically motivated pattern of killings," Kumar noted.

"The organization remains gravely concerned that members of the 
security
forces may have been directly involved in the killings, or else have
tolerated, acquiesced to, or been complicit in them," he said.
Over the last six years, there had been not a single conviction of a
perpetrator, he told the US Senate committee. "A lack of accountability 
for
such political killings remains a critical challenge."

Kumar said Philippine authorities should "urgently reiterate a clear,
unequivocal message to all members of the police, military and other 
security
forces that involvement in, or acquiescence to, such unlawful killings 
will
never be tolerated."

"All such cases must be fully and promptly investigated and all those
responsible, whether linked to the armed forces or not, brought to 
justice,"
he said. "Only in this manner can public confidence in the impartial 
and
effective administration of justice be restored and a peace process, 
with
respect for human rights by all sides at its heart, be revived."