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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippines: MILF endorse EU human rights report |
| 2008-04-08 |
| (AKI) - The largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines has endorsed a push by the European Commission to improve Manila's human rights record. At the weekend, senior members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front hailed the latest report by the commission, the executive of the European Union, that criticised Manila's human rights record. The MILF also approved the European Commission's programme to help the Filipino government improve its rights record. On the rebel's website Luwaran, Khaled Musa, deputy chairman of the MILF committee on information, said that "the government should not snub those who wish to help protect the human rights of people in the country." Although the Philippines government accepted the EC's offer of assistance, the chief presidential legal adviser Sergio Apostol criticised the report, and said that the “EU was unfair to the Philippines government.” The EU needs assessment mission came to the Philippines in June last year. Its final report, released on Friday, called for the government to properly define extrajudicial killings and improve its witness protection programme, the body which deals with extrajudicial killings, police forensic investigation and the country’s legal frameworks. The EC report also stated that the army's counter-insurgency strategy "blurs the differentiation between combatants and non-combatants" and that the military issued orders which include a person or groups who are "suspected" of being allies of National People's Army, the communist militia-group of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 They really need to change their name becuase everytime I see MILF... I get a completely different idea about what the article is about... and always hope there are pics... Blackvenom-2001 |
| Posted by: Blackvenom-2001 2008-04-08 09:03 |