219 government forces, 227 insurgents killed in 2009 – report

WASHINGTON – It was tit for tat between government forces and rebel and terrorist groups last year.

The US State Department, quoting military sources, said 219 members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and 227 insurgents were killed in action throughout the country. Additionally, 27 police and 23 insurgents died in other fighting.

Of the AFP casualties, 132 were killed by the New People’s Army (NPA), 54 by the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and 33 by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

In its 2009 Human Rights Report on the Philippines released on Thursday, the State Department blamed both sides for a number of arbitrary and unlawful killings, including in connection with an increase in fighting between government forces and Muslim rebels in central Mindanao.

The report said arbitrary, unlawful, and extrajudicial killings by elements of the security services and political killings, inclusive of journalists, by a variety of actors continued to be major problems.

“Members of the security services committed acts of physical and psychological abuse on suspects and detainees, and there were instances of torture. Prisoners awaiting trial and those already convicted were often held under primitive conditions,” the report read.

“Disappearances occurred, and arbitrary or warrantless arrests and detentions were common,” it added.

The report also excoriated the NPA and ASG for killing not only soldiers and police officers in armed encounters but also local government officials and other civilians, using child soldiers in combat or auxiliary roles, and for bombings and kidnappings for ransom.

The report also said journalists continue to face harassment and threats of violence from individuals critical of their reporting. And they continue to be killed.

The report noted most print and electronic media in the Philippines are privately owned.

The independent media are active and express a wide variety of views without restriction, but are freewheeling and often criticized for lacking rigorous journalistic ethics, it said.

They tend to reflect the particular political or economic orientation of owners, publishers, or patrons, some of whom are close associates of present or past high-level officials.

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility reported 34 journalists killed from January through December, the report said.

The 2009 Human Rights Report provides a specific, detailed picture of human rights conditions in 194 countries around the world “that will inform the United States’ diplomatic, economic and strategic policies toward other countries in the coming year,” US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said. –Jose Katigbak, STAR Washington Bureau (The Philippine Star)