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US expresses concern over killings in the Philippines

The US is concerned over a spate of killings of left-wing activists in the Philippines, a US official said yesterday, joining calls by a UN investigator and a local inquiry for the government to take firmer action.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration has come under increasing pressure at home and abroad to start prosecuting the perpetrators of the killings, which left-wing activists claim have left more than 800 dead since 2001.

The military denies any involvement and has accused activists of acting as fronts for communist rebels who began waging a nationwide rebellion 38 years ago and are included on US and European lists of terrorist organizations.

"It is important in every democracy that such killings are investigated," US embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop said. "Certainly, more can de done. There are continuing reports that unsolved killings are taking place and circumstances are murky."

"The crux of the matter is the need to recognize that murder is murder is murder, no matter who gets murdered or who is doing it," he said.

Last week, UN human rights investigator Philip Alston and a fact-finding commission created by Arroyo found members of the military culpable in a number of killings, which are typically carried out by unidentified motorcycle-riding gunmen.

In most cases, witnesses are afraid to come forward.

Arroyo has vowed to resolve the killings and uphold "the good name of 99 percent of soldiery."

But analysts say she may be in a difficult position to act against the military, a key power-broker in often tumultuous Philippine politics. Generals withdrew support from late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and helped oust President Joseph Estrada in 2001, when Arroyo took power.

The largest left-wing group Bayan said the government should stop labeling legal activist groups as communist, and that Arroyo should issue a categorical order to the military "to desist from targeting" the organizations.

It also called for suspect military officials to be suspended to pave the way for an impartial investigation by the government's Commission on Human Rights.

"We want decisive steps to end the killings, not just moves to appease foreign observers and governments," Bayan Secretary-General Renato Reyes said. "We want results, and that means the body count should not go any higher than it already is."
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