CPP urges Unicef to probe death of 9-year old in Compostela


INQUIRER.net
Last updated 05:15pm (Mla time) 04/08/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Communist rebels urged the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and other human rights organizations to conduct a joint probe into the March 31 killing in Compostela Valley of a nine-year old girl the Philippine Army had tagged a “child warrior” of the New People’s Army.

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) spokesman Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, in a statement, also gave assurances that the New People’s Army (NPA) “and its local units will cooperate with the UNICEF and other agencies once such a probe is initiated.”

Rosal’s call came after human rights groups disputed military claims that Grecil Galacio had been killed fighting Army troops in an encounter in which a soldier was also slain.

In the statement, Rosal also said the rebels would “exert all effort within its means to achieve justice for the Galacio family.”

News reports quoting the military, who identified the child as 12-year-old Graciel Buya (Buya is the family name of her mother), said the girl died in a clash that also left Army Private First Class (PFC) Ruben Bracera dead sitio (sub-village) Simsim, Kahayag village, New Bataan town, Compostela Valley.

The military claimed “the child was spotted earlier in the area [where the class occurred] with her M16 [rifle],” and was killed when “the soldiers had to fire back at the creek area from where the heavy fire that hit PFC Bracera was coming from.”

It held up the incident as proof of “the NPA's continuing program to recruit minors as their combatants," adding that three other M16s and two M14 rifles were recovered by the troops while a homemade shotgun, M14 ammunition, combat gear and subversive documents were later taken when the girl’s home was raided.

But the human rights alliance Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights), in an urgent action alert it issued, said the child was bathing in the creek when she was shot.

The group said the girl’s parents and neighbors, as well as the head of the village where she lived, denied she was a rebel but had just finished Grade 2. It also said the soldiers showed the village chief a picture of the dead child with an M16 rifle by her side, apparently to back up their claims she was a combatant.

In his statement, Rosal called this a “desecration” of the girl’s body and claimed she was “deliberately shot at” by troops of the Philippine Army's 67th Infantry Battalion who “initiated a firefight with a small unit of the New People's Army (NPA) then resting in the area.”

He asked the UNICEF and other human rights agencies “cooperate with Philippine human rights organizations to investigate the incident and determine the extent of violation of the international Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the UN conventions and protocols on human rights and humanitarian conduct of war as well as other pertinent rules and agreements, including the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) signed by the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.”

The CPP spokesman also urged the Galacio family to file a complaint before the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC), which is tasked to monitor compliance with the CARHRIHL and accept and investigate complaints regarding violations of the agreement.

Such an investigation, he said, would “help the Galacio family dispel the lies being circulated by the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] that Grecil was a member of the NPA and was shot by army troopers because she was firing at them.

At the same time he urged human rights and other organizations to bring the incident before different venues "to expose the AFP's brutal war of suppression that primarily victimizes children, women and other innocent civilians in complete disregard of international humanitarian norms of war that protect noncombatants."


Copyright 2007 INQUIRER.net. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.