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The government’s watchdog on human rights is
studying charges that it could file before two major international
organizations against Muslim rebels who on Monday attacked and
killed dozens of civilians in southern Philippines.
Leila de Lima, the chairman of
the Commission on Human Rights, on Tuesday said the charges against
the insurgents from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) could
be brought to the United Nations or the influential Organization of
Islamic Conference.
“As part of our monitoring
functions, it is our duty to report to the United Nations and other
appropriate bodies the actual situation in the Philippines,” de
Lima added.
She urged the Philippine National
Police to also consider filing charges against Commander Bravo and
Commander Umbra Kato, both supposedly breakaway members of the MILF.
Bravo also was reported to have
led Monday’s attacks and Kato, that on North Cotabato last week
supposedly over the Supreme Court blocking the signing of a peace
agreement on ancestral domain between the government and the rebels.
MILF leaders “cannot just
escape responsibility by disowning, by saying these [attacks led by
Bravo and Kato] were the work of people who are not under their
control or so-called [members of the liberation front’s] lost
command,” de Lima said.
She added that the MILF must go
beyond disavowing its responsibility to police its own ranks.
De Lima dared the leaders of the
insurgents to show good faith and sincerity in the peace process by
surrendering the people involved in the attacks “if they can do
that.”
The attackers were reported to
have overrun on Monday five towns in Lanao del Norte province and a
town in Sarangani province, hacked the civilians with machetes and
burned down houses before retreating from government troops and
using residents as human shields.
They were called “terrorists”
by de Lima.
“It is a terrorist act when you
sow fear in communities and the MILF’s attacks were actually
sowing fear in many villages and nearby cities. That is the
situation there [Lanao del Norte and Sarangani] now, people are
afraid that violence would erupt once again or might spread to other
nearby areas,” she told a press conference.
De Lima described the attacks as
“condemnable.”
She said that she has instructed
the regional office of the rights commission to work with the
national police in protecting the people displaced by the fighting
between the soldiers and the insurgents.
De Lima called on agencies under
the National Disaster Coordinating Council to lead the evacuation of
civilians trapped by the gunbattle and provide them humanitarian
assistance.
Help to residents of North
Cotabato apparently was inadequate.
The Commission on Human Rights
said an initial report of its special team deployed last week to
monitor the situation of the evacuees in the province found that
they lacked food and potable water and that they slept on the floor
and muddy ground.
It added that the team also
reported poor sanitation in the temporary shelters, inadequate
medical services and medicines and disorganized implementation of
local plans against disasters.
De Lima said the rights
commission is helping the evacuees and asking support for them from
international groups and local non-government organizations.
She added that the Red Cross, the
Salvation Army and the European Community have pledged tents, food
and water for the displaced in North Cotabato.
--Ira Karen Apanay
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