Military faking ‘evidence’ on child warriors — HRW

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is again up to its old dirty tricks of fabricating “evidence” and information.

A prominent international human rights group has accused the Philippine military of fabricating information that children they take into custody are child soldiers.

An independent investi-gation conducted by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) “found strong evidence” indicating that the accounts of the detained minors’ involvement with rebel groups “were fabricated by the military.”

Although it acknowledged that many children are being used as combatants by communist and Muslim rebel groups, HRW said tagging those who are innocent as child warriors endangers the lives of the minors and undermines efforts to stop the recruitment process.

In six cases involving 12 children since President Aquino took office in June 2010, HRW said the

working with the communist New People’s Army (NPA).

In each of the cases investigated, the army displayed the children in front of the media, publicly branding them rebels.

In two of the cases, the army detained the children for several days, in violation of Philippine law, before handing them over to the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DWSD), HRW said.

“The army is concocting stories of rebel child soldiers that are putting children at risk for propaganda purposes,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should get the military to stop this despicable practice and investigate the officers involved.”

Under Philippine law, the military must immediately turn over children taken into custody during armed operations to the social welfare agency, the police, or the local government, to protect the child’s privacy, and to protect the child from further harm.

The law also prohibits the military from exposing apprehended or rescued children to the media unless the defense secretary or military chief determines that there is a compelling national security interest to do so. Even then, HRW said, the social welfare secretary must be consulted and the child only exposed once to the media.

International humanitarian law also prohibits exposing captured combatants to public view, including by the media.

“The credibility of the armed forces is seriously questioned when it resorts to faking stories about child soldiers,” Pearson said.

HRW investigations further revealed that the Philippine Army allegedly “harass and intimidate the children and their families following their release.”

“One mother has relocated her children out of fear for their safety since soldiers visited her home asking her to bring the children to the military camp to sign unspecified papers,” HRW said.

Pearson urged Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin to publicly condemn the military’s practice of branding children as child solders without solid evidence to back their claims and its habit of presenting the captured minors to the media.

“Senior defense and social welfare officials should tell the armed forces to quit harassing children and their families,” Pearson said.

Over the years, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef)has documented the use of children in armed conflict by the NPA and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, as well as by government forces.

The Philippines is party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on children in armed conflict, which establishes 18 as the minimum age for recruitment or direct participation in hostilities.

Pearson said the government of President Aquino should actively work to end the use of children in armed conflict, including as guides, informants or porters.

“The use of child soldiers in the Philippines is a matter of grave concern that the government should be taking seriously,” Pearson said.

“But fabricating claims that children are involved undermines efforts to address genuine child soldier recruitment while putting other children in danger.” –Michaela P. del Callar, Manila Times