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Human Rights Watch condemns slaying of Otazas by NPA as murder
DAVAO
CITY, Philippines – The execution of mayor Dario Otaza of Loreto,
Agusan del Sur and his son on October 19 was plain murder and could not
be justified, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday.
Mayor
Dario Otaza of Loreto, Agusan del Sur poses for an interview with
reporters in December last year saying his town has managed to drive
away communist insurgents from the New People’s Army and dissuaded
residents from joining the group. He was once an NPA rebel himself who
returned to the fold of the law and managed to enter politics. He and
his 27-year-old son were slain by the NPA recently. DENNIS JAY
SANTOS/INQUIRER MINDANAO
The
New People’s Army (NPA) owned up to the abduction and eventual
execution of the 53-year old Otaza and the 27-year old Daryl, saying it
was revolutionary justice.
“The
killing of the Otazas – like other NPA executions – is just plain
murder,” Phil Robertson, HRW deputy Asia director, said in a media
statement.
Robertson
said while the rebel group frequently killed people found guilty by the
so-called people’s courts, the trials were far from being fair.
“The
NPA’s actions and claims of revolutionary justice handed down by
people’s courts are flagrant violations of international law,” he said.
Robertson
said “as a party to an internal armed conflict, the NPA is obligated to
abide by international humanitarian law, including common article 3 to
the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Second Additional Protocol of
1977 (Protocol II), to which the Philippines is party.”
“International
humanitarian law prohibits killing civilians, mistreating anyone in
custody, and convicting anyone in proceedings that do not meet
international fair trial standards,” he added citing Article 6 of
Protocol II – which says that criminal courts must be independent and
impartial.
But
under the NPA’s revolutionary justice, he said that the accused were
tried and convicted in absentia, “thus denied the right to be tried in
one’s presence before an impartial court.”
“The NPA should end this charade of unjust ‘people’s courts’ and cease all executions,” Robertson said.
Philip
Alston, the former United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial,
summary, or arbitrary executions, said the NPA’s claim that the Otazas
were given fair trial was “not supported by the facts.”
Alston also described the so-called people’s courts as “either deeply flawed or simply a sham.”
HRW warned that the NPA killings could worsen the human rights situation in Agusan del Sur and other provinces.
“By
resorting to vigilantism in the name of justice, the NPA is only
serving to harm its own demands for justice for victims of military
human rights violations,” Robertson warned.
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