Since January 2000, radical armed Islamist groups in the Philippines have carried out over 40 major bombings against civilians and civilian property. Attacks on Mindanao, Basilan, Jolo, and other southern islands have killed nearly 400 civilians and injured well over a thousand more. Bombs have been set off in urban centers, markets and stores, airports, on ferry boats and wharfs, and on rural roads and highways. They have killed Philippine civilians indiscriminately — Christians and Muslims, men and women, parents and children — and left behind orphans, widows, and widowers. Hundreds of other victims have suffered severe wounds, burns, and lost limbs.
In total, bombings and other attacks against civilians in the Philippines have caused over 1,700 casualties in the last seven years, more than the number of people killed and injured in bombing attacks during the same period in neighboring Indonesia (including the 2002 Bali bombings), and considerably more than the number of those killed and injured in bombings in Morocco, Spain, Turkey, or Britain
Astonishing, “Lives Destroyed: Attacks on Civilians in the Philippines,” contains personal accounts and photographs of bombing sites and of victims of attacks and their relatives. . The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM), based in the southern Philippines, are implicated in or have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks.
“Extremist armed groups have spread terror among civilians in the Philippines,” said John Sifton, senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism at Human Rights Watch. “They have bombed buses carrying workers, food markets where people were shopping, airports where relatives were waiting for loved ones, and ferry boats carrying families.”
Human Rights Watch faulted the Philippines government for not prosecuting those responsible for attacks. Although numerous suspects in bombing attacks have been arrested since 2000, Human Rights Watch said that very few have been successfully brought to trial, and prosecutions in some cases have been delayed for more than four years.
Human Rights Watch has criticized the recent passage of a new counterterrorism law, “The Human Security Act,” (http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/07/16/philip16404.htm) which contains dangerous overbroad provisions that violate human rights standards and broaden the scope of government power to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely. Human Rights Watch said that existing criminal statutes were more than sufficient to prosecute acts of terrorism.
“The Philippines doesn’t need a new abusive counterterrorism law,” said Sifton. “The government isn’t using the laws it already has, so why does it need new provisions that violate human rights?” Wrong, after the deaths of 1700 filipinos, how many more does Sifton needs to see dead before the philippines enacts their version of the "patriot Act"
The Human Rights Watch report provides compelling new information about many of the attacks that have occurred in recent years. For instance, it contains interviews with survivors of the February 27, 2004 bombing of the Superferry 14, a ferry traveling from Manila to Mindanao. The bomb, which detonated just outside of Manila harbor, killed at least 116 people. The dead included 15 children, six of whom were under five years old. At least 12 families lost multiple members, and at least 10 married couples died together. Six of the children killed in the blast were students on a championship team sent by schools in northern Mindanao to compete in a journalism contest in Manila.
The report also details the February 14, 2005 “Valentine’s Day” bombings of Manila and two cities in Mindanao. Human Rights Watch interviewed Mark Gil Bigbig, a 31-year-old student, who was eating at a fast-food restaurant in General Santos City when a bomb went off outside: “We were surprised . . . people were shouting, ‘It’s a bomb!’ I looked down, and already I could see my blood splashing below me, and I dropped to the ground.” Bigbig suffered major trauma to his legs from shrapnel and broken glass, and today, more than two years after the attack, cannot walk without braces and crutches.
The report explains how survivors with minimal physical injuries have suffered. For instance, Aurelia Espera, a victim of a 2003 attack, tearfully told Human Rights Watch about seeing the bodies of her two children, one of them decapitated, and her mother-in-law: “I can never forget, I saw my children lying there in the street.”
I am astonished that 1700 filipino citizens were killed at the hands of Islamists. Mind boggling that Arroyo did not use all of her military after the beheading of 10 filipino marines.
These bastons of the 7th century occupy a piece of turf and then decide to seceede from the country. The same thing happened in the mid 1800’s in the USA. In 1861 to 1865, Abraham Lincoln did what was necessary. He preserved the union of the United States.
Appeasing Islamists does not work, Force does.
In total, bombings and other attacks against civilians in the Philippines have caused over 1,700 casualties in the last seven years, more than the number of people killed and injured in bombing attacks during the same period in neighboring Indonesia (including the 2002 Bali bombings), and considerably more than the number of those killed and injured in bombings in Morocco, Spain, Turkey, or Britain
Astonishing, “Lives Destroyed: Attacks on Civilians in the Philippines,” contains personal accounts and photographs of bombing sites and of victims of attacks and their relatives. . The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM), based in the southern Philippines, are implicated in or have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks.
“Extremist armed groups have spread terror among civilians in the Philippines,” said John Sifton, senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism at Human Rights Watch. “They have bombed buses carrying workers, food markets where people were shopping, airports where relatives were waiting for loved ones, and ferry boats carrying families.”
Human Rights Watch faulted the Philippines government for not prosecuting those responsible for attacks. Although numerous suspects in bombing attacks have been arrested since 2000, Human Rights Watch said that very few have been successfully brought to trial, and prosecutions in some cases have been delayed for more than four years.
Human Rights Watch has criticized the recent passage of a new counterterrorism law, “The Human Security Act,” (http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/07/16/philip16404.htm) which contains dangerous overbroad provisions that violate human rights standards and broaden the scope of government power to hold terrorism suspects indefinitely. Human Rights Watch said that existing criminal statutes were more than sufficient to prosecute acts of terrorism.
“The Philippines doesn’t need a new abusive counterterrorism law,” said Sifton. “The government isn’t using the laws it already has, so why does it need new provisions that violate human rights?” Wrong, after the deaths of 1700 filipinos, how many more does Sifton needs to see dead before the philippines enacts their version of the "patriot Act"
The Human Rights Watch report provides compelling new information about many of the attacks that have occurred in recent years. For instance, it contains interviews with survivors of the February 27, 2004 bombing of the Superferry 14, a ferry traveling from Manila to Mindanao. The bomb, which detonated just outside of Manila harbor, killed at least 116 people. The dead included 15 children, six of whom were under five years old. At least 12 families lost multiple members, and at least 10 married couples died together. Six of the children killed in the blast were students on a championship team sent by schools in northern Mindanao to compete in a journalism contest in Manila.
The report also details the February 14, 2005 “Valentine’s Day” bombings of Manila and two cities in Mindanao. Human Rights Watch interviewed Mark Gil Bigbig, a 31-year-old student, who was eating at a fast-food restaurant in General Santos City when a bomb went off outside: “We were surprised . . . people were shouting, ‘It’s a bomb!’ I looked down, and already I could see my blood splashing below me, and I dropped to the ground.” Bigbig suffered major trauma to his legs from shrapnel and broken glass, and today, more than two years after the attack, cannot walk without braces and crutches.
The report explains how survivors with minimal physical injuries have suffered. For instance, Aurelia Espera, a victim of a 2003 attack, tearfully told Human Rights Watch about seeing the bodies of her two children, one of them decapitated, and her mother-in-law: “I can never forget, I saw my children lying there in the street.”
I am astonished that 1700 filipino citizens were killed at the hands of Islamists. Mind boggling that Arroyo did not use all of her military after the beheading of 10 filipino marines.
These bastons of the 7th century occupy a piece of turf and then decide to seceede from the country. The same thing happened in the mid 1800’s in the USA. In 1861 to 1865, Abraham Lincoln did what was necessary. He preserved the union of the United States.
Appeasing Islamists does not work, Force does.
