Torture By All Sides
I saw a series of special reports last week on one of our local evening newscasts. It was about the New People’s Army. One of the reports featured an interview with a rebel returnee who is now with the Philippine Army.
The former rebel, a female, narrated how the NPA lured her into joining their group with promises of income and livelihood opportunities. She admitted that those promises were the main reason why she got involved with the Communist insurgency. It didn’t take long though for her to realize that those were all just empty promises and that the NPA were doing more harm than good in their community.
In another report from the same series another female rebel returnee revealed how female recruits were routinely raped by the male members of the armed group. She said she herself was abused.
One of them (I forget which one) said when she left the NPA her former comrades attacked her and her family. She and her child survived but not her husband whom she said was killed by the rebels right before her eyes.
There are allegations of similar atrocities against the Philippine military. Reports of torture, kidnappings, forced disappearances and other atrocities hound the military to this day. The latest allegation of this nature involves a Filipino-American by the name of Melissa Roxas who claims to have been tortured. Blogger Ding Gagelonia posted an entry about this case in his blog. His post includes the full text of what is supposed to be Melissa’s affidavit. Read his post here.
Melissa’s case is fast becoming a hot issue in the blogosphere. As I commented in Pedestrian Observer’s blog this could become a big issue against the Arroyo administration especially once the US government gets involved. We’ll have to wait and see how this will develop.
The problem with reports of torture is that they are often difficult to prove. In most cases, victims are also only able to identify those who actually carried out the torture but not the brains behind it.
The United Nations has been working hard to eradicate torture for years but, apparently, to no avail. Read the UN’s stand against torture here.
I don’t think it would make much of a difference but I’m adding my voice to the call for an end to all forms of torture.
