Reds urge gov't to set up human rights body

Communist guerrillas have appealed to the government to immediately form the body that shall oversee the "humanitarian conduct" of the armed conflict following a series of military assaults on rebel positions in Oriental Mindoro.

Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, spokesman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), claimed that ongoing counterinsurgency operations in Mindoro island have resulted in the "rampant human rights violations against civilians and human rights workers."

Assaults earlier carried out by government forces against the New People’s Army (NPA), the CPP’s armed wing, in Oriental Mindoro led to the discovery of a guerrilla camp in Paluan town.

But according to Rosal, "military abuses have been reported against civilians and members of a fact-finding mission from a multi-sectoral human rights team in Paluan."

He said there have been instances of "illegal arrests and detention, harassment and torture, against civilians in the area" and that "sexual indignities have been committed against womenfolk, and the people’s right to free movement violated."

Rosal claimed that last Jan. 22, a group of human rights workers investigating the alleged military atrocities were "held at gunpoint by soldiers who seized their belongings, including their documentation of human rights abuses."

"They also struck with rifle butts two members of the rights group," said the rebel spokesman.

According to Rosal, such alleged abuses can be immediately addressed if the government "expedites the formation of the Joint Monitoring Committee to oversee the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law."