HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Church Groups Seek Release of Moro Detainees
Accused of alleged
connections with the Abu Sayyaf Group, 130 Moros have spent five years at
a military camp south of Manila and Moro advocates and interfaith groups
are calling for justice.
By Bulatlat
Moro detainees and
advocates from the Muslim and Christian sectors marked on Dec. 4 the
International Human Rights Week through an interfaith solidarity jail
visit at the Special Intensive Care Area (SICA), Camp Bagong Diwa in
Taguig City, south of Manila, where some 134 Moro detainees are detained
for alleged connection with the Abu Sayyaf Group.
Organizers of the
visit, the Moro-Christian Peoples’ Alliance (MCPA) and the Friends of Moro
Detainees (FRIENDS), called for the release of the Moro detainees, most
whom, they said, are victims of mistaken identity and “terrorist tagging.”
The event, “Reaching
out to the Moro People Behind Bars, Strengthening the Bridge of
Understanding,” underscored the significance of Muslim and Christian unity
amid the “worsening attacks on the human rights of the Moro people.”
“Many church
workers,” said Fr. Dioni Cabillas, co-chair of the MCPA from the Iglesia
Filipina Independiente (IFI), “have been fervent in their commitment to
continue the ministry to forge greater solidarity with the Moro detainees.
Many human rights workers have been religiously advocating the welfare of
the Moro detainees and have been with them in their fight for justice
since they have been illegally arrested and detained.”
The Moro detainees
were arrested in a series of military-led warrantless arrests in Basilan,
Zamboanga and Sulu, southern Philippines, and in Metro Manila between 2001
and recently.
Fifteen of those
arrested have been released following the dismissal of their cases by the
court for lack of evidence.
Killed in police raid
Twenty-two were,
however, killed on March 15, 2004 in a police of Camp Bagong Diwa
allegedly to foil an escape by some of the detainees.
A report by the
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said that most of fatalities were
summarily executed by the police assault team.
Father Cabillas said,
“Theirs (the detainees) is a clear case of how Moro civilians suffer from
the war on terror campaign of the U.S.-Arroyo government. More than the
civilian, it is the whole family unit that is shattered.”
Kelly Lawig, a
spokesperson of FRIENDS- ISNMPP (International Solidarity Network for
Muslim Peoples in the Philippines) said, “The streets are even scarier
than the SICA building in Camp Bagong Diwa. Most of the detainees are
innocent of the crimes charged against them - they are just like us, but
they were victims of a maligned war on terror plan of this immoral
government.”
The National Council
of Churches in the Philippines, the United Church of Christ in the
Philippines, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, Religious of the Good
Shepherd Sisters (RGS) and other foreign and local human rights defenders
joined the activity. Bulatlat
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