Sunday, April 12, 2009

CHR monitored 43 arrest made in Sulu

JOLO, SULU, Philippines – The Commission on Human Rights has started looking into human rights violations done to 43 persons “invited” by police and military for suspicion of conspiracy with the Abu Sayyaf.

A special team of Human Rights investigators from government’s Commission on Human Rights (CHR) were able to get a list of names of invitees from the authorities here.

Earlier, Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan challenged the CHR team to provide him list of “invitees” as the figure could be “exaggerated”. “Where is the list?,” Tan was quoted asking the CHR team.

Though Tan assured the “invitees” will be given due process, he assured that is it not a “martial law” where authorities can arbitrarily arrest individuals on mere suspicion of conspiring to the Abu Sayyaf.

The four-man Investigating team of CHR 9 is headed by Rey Ituralde, Chief, Investigation Division CHR 9.

Ituralde said, they are “talking to lawyers” of 36 individuals whose clients were invited by the police following a crack down days after the “State of Emergency” was declared in Sulu.

Of the 43 individuals invited 8 were brought to Zamboanga City for inquest proceeding, of which 7 were charged and later released due to “insufficient probable cause”.

The CHR team also noticed the stop of crack down by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in the province.

The team left Sulu Saturday and is expected to submit a formal report to the regional office in Zamboanga City.

Brendo Morales, Special Investigator III, CHR said they are looking into some cases of “invitations” for possible violation of human rights.

He however declined to give specifics of their “initial findings”.

The monitoring of Human rights violation of CHR 9 here will continue following some “invitations” to individuals done in remote areas of Sulu and are now “under tactical interrogation (TI)” by authorities.

Over the week, a barangay captain in Indanan narrated an incident where CIDG operatives attempted to “arrest” 2 (two) more barangay captains from Indanan attending a dialogue with the AFP.

The barangay captain, who requested not be named said, in case CIDG operatives insisted, “dadanak ang dugo doon mismo”.

The CIDG returned to Jolo, Sulu empty handed, the barangay captain said.

The AFP conducted series of dialogue in Indanan town last week.

No comments:

Post a Comment