Rights group challenges UN to include AFP in shame list

Rights group challenges UN to include AFP in shame list Pinoy Weekly Posted: 21 Jun 2013 01:51 AM PDT Women and child rights groups accused the AFP of petrpetrating human rights violations. (Macky Macaspac/PW File Photo) Child rights advocates challenged the United Nations to look into the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as perpetrator of human rights violations, in reaction to the latest UN report entitled “Grave violations committed against children in 22 situations of concern” released last June 12. In the said report, the UN raised concerns over the use of children in armed conflict situations. The report said that Philippine military has been involved in recruiting children in their operations. The UN cited a verified report of two boys, aged 12 and 13 years, who were forced to serve as guides to locate an NPA camp in North Cotabato Province by the 57th Infantry Batallion of Philippine Army last July of 2012. The UN also observed that military continues to present children in the media and label them as members of armed groups. Aside from this, UN also raised concern regarding the military’s continued use of schools for military purposes, disrupting classes. But the Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC), an institution catering to children victims of human rights violations and a member of the Country Task Force on Monitoring and Reporting of the UN, is not satisfied with the report and the concerns raised by the UN. The cases we documented and verified, through fact-finding missions and similar activities, that there is a pattern of violations of human rights by the government troops. Are the persistence of the AFP’s children’s rights violations and its effects on hundreds of children in the country not enough to include them in the UN’s list of shame?” said Jacquiline Ruiz, executive director of CRC in a statement. The group said that violations committed by military reached an alarming point. In 2012 alone, the group documented and verified 12 cases of killing, four (4) children used as guides in military operations, 10 children arrested, detained and tagged as members of the New People’s Army (NPA) and hundreds affected by the continuing attacks and encampment of military in schools. Ruiz also cited a case of a 16-year old boy from Trento, Agusan del Sur who sustained a wound in his left thigh after the soldiers from 25th and 75th IB dropped bombs on their community and later was arrested after he got to the evacuation center where his family and other community members took refuge. Ruiz alleged that the boy was photographed and presented to the media, branding him as member of the NPA. Other cases cited by the group and allegedly committed by the military in 2012: 4 boys from North Cotabato, in two separate incidents, were threatened by members of the 57th IB and later used as guides in their military operations; A 16-year old boy from Quezon Province was arrested by the 74th IB and detained based on a fabricated case for almost 11 months in a government institution. The boy was an ordinary farmer looking for his livelihood and was illegally arrested and alleged to be a member of the NPA; In Negros Occidental, 3 boys from an indigenous group were arrested and detained for two days, along with other 16 farmers, and were branded as members of the NPA when the AFP allegedly retaliated in their community after an encounter with the NPA These cases are not isolated because it is happening all over the country,” Ruiz quipped. Meanwhile, Gabriela Women’s Party-list Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan called on the government to proactively address the use of children in armed conflict by initiating moves towards the resumption of peace negotiations, the prosecution of child rights violators and the immediate junking of the government’s counter insurgency operation Oplan Bayanihan. Children will continue to become victims amid intensified clashes and military operations. Not only will they be used as shields or recruited as guides, worse, as Aquino’s AFP continues its implementation of Oplan Bayanihan, more children will fall victims to indiscriminate firing and community blockades.” expressed Ilagan. Ilagan also stressed that Aquino government should ensure that military elements found responsible for violation of children’s rights are made accountable. Military and government officials on Tuesday said that it is not their policy to use children in military operations. “As a matter of policy, the AFP does not use children as guides during military operations so as not to endanger them,” said AFP Spokesperson Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, in media reports. For its part, Malacanang said that they will conduct probe into the allegation as stated in the UN report. The Aquino government has no further response but to ‘look into allegations’ and recite their policy of non-employment of children in their military operations while destroying lives of the victims, and perpetrators remained unpunished and continued violations of children’s rights tell a different story,” said Ruiz, in reaction to Malacanang’s response to the report. ##