Group assails government for rights violations

A human rights group has said that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's first year of administration has been marred by numerous human rights abuses, including further deprivation in the lives of 20 million Filipinos.

The Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) noted that rights abuses such as illegal detention, torture, displacement and massacre were connected to the government's intensified support of the U.S. government's anti-terrorism campaign.

The group said as of June 2002, there were 197 political prisoners languishing in 63 prison cells in the country. Most of them were arrested on suspicion of being members of the communist New People's Army, the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the extremist Abu Sayyaf.

Since February 2001, at least 49 people had been tortured, three of them minors aged 14, 16 and 17 at the time of TFDP documentation. Most of the torture victims were Muslims and the incident happened in southern Philip-pines' Mindanao, where a separatist conflict has been raging for decades.

"The purpose of the torture was usually to force the victims to admit membership or support of the NPA, the MILF, the Abu Sayyaf, or admit participation in terrorist activities such as bombing," stated the TFDP report entitled Human Rights Violations by Commission and Omission, a copy of which was released to reporters yesterday.

The continuing anti-terrorism drive under the Arroyo government has also displaced over 150,000 families in areas of Mindanao.