News:
AFP takes Karapatan members hostage

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

THE military detained 61 members of human rights group Tanggol Karapatan-Southern Tagalog (Karapatan-ST) inside a Philippine Independent Church chapel in Roxas, Oriental Mindoro on April 16, maliciously accusing them of harboring a wounded Red fighter inside the church.

The group had just arrived from a fact-finding mission in nearby Bongabong town where a seven-year-old child was reported killed by soldiers after an encounter between the military and the NPA a few days earlier. Edwin Macarinas, a local coordinator of the party-list group Anakpawis, was also reported abducted in the area and later found dead nearby.

The group from Karapatan-ST were resting and spending the night in the church when they were surrounded by 20 masked military men armed with high powered rifles at around 4:00 in the morning. The soldiers claimed that they were looking for a wounded NPA fighter.

The town�s police chief was sent by the military inside the church but he failed to find the alleged Red fighter. The Karapatan members were nonetheless prevented from leaving the chapel and even verbally abused by the military. They were released only at around 4:00 p.m. when the provincial governor intervened and press people arrived.

21 April 2004
English Edition

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