Stop the talk, punish culprits in political killings, Arroyo told

MANILA, Philippines - Walk your talk. An international human rights watchdog has renewed its call for the Arroyo administration to stop paying lip service to addressing cases of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines. According to Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, the administration has still failed to establish accountability for the crimes because military personnel accused in the killings remain scot-free. “It’s not enough just to tell people to stop the killings. If you really want to put an end to them, you need to show that the killers are brought to justice. And that’s something that the government has not done," Roth told GMANews.TV on Monday in an interview at a hotel in Ortigas Center in Pasig City. Roth laments that “impunity at the military level" remains, indicating that the administration has failed in its effort to address politically motivated killings in the country. “The government has not yet prosecuted a single soldier for extra-judicial killings. And until it establishes accountability for those crimes, it risks a recurrence down the road. What’s needed now is to end impunity by bringing the military under the rule of law and show that these kinds of killings will not be tolerated," he said. Non-government organizations have recorded at least 992 cases of extra-judicial killings, and another 193 cases of disappearance since 2001 when Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed the presidency. The latest are that of human rights workers Sabina Ariola and Adelaida Calosa, who were gunned down in Laguna province last March 23 by unknown assailants. Politically motivated killings have risen in the first three months of the year. Philippine human rights group Karapatan has recorded 16 killings during the said period — two in January, seven in February, and another seven in March. The worsening human rights abuse is “very unusual" for a country supposedly under a “vibrant democracy," according to Roth, former US prosecutor, who has investigated human rights abuses around the globe, with expertise on issues of justice and accountability for atrocities committed in the quest for peace. “It’s hard to find such situation in other Asian democracies. There wouldn’t be another Asian democracy like that. You should go as far as Sri Lanka to find a parallel. But in East Asia or Southeast Asia, none at all," he said. - GMANews.TV