U.S. lawmakers told of Philippine murders

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - As the number of leftist activists murdered in the Philippines rises, Bishop Eliezer Pascua points to a constant among people speaking out on political matters in his country: No one feels safe.

Pascua, in testimony prepared for a congressional hearing Wednesday, said more than 830 activists are estimated to have been killed since 2001, when Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became president. The dead include reporters, lawyers, doctors, teachers, students and priests. Everyone, he said, is afraid.

"I admit that I have that fear," said Pascua, general secretary of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. "You can all imagine the chilling effect among the people."

The hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Asia subcommittee comes a day after Bayan, the largest left-wing group in the Philippines, asked U.S. lawmakers to halt military aid to the country because of the killing of leftist activists.

The issue is a delicate one for the Bush administration. While eager to defend human rights around the world, Washington is the Philippines' closest military ally. It provides crucial training and intelligence support for Philippine military offensives against militants linked to the terror group al-Qaida.

Arroyo's government has denied allegations by a U.N. human rights expert and its own fact-finding commission that soldiers were behind most of the killings of activists since 2001. Arroyo's office says the government is determined to uphold the rule of law.

Military officials have accused activists of links to communist rebels, who have waged a 38-year rural-based insurgency.

Another activist testifying at the hearing, Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary-general of the rights group Karapatan, said violations in the Philippines have gotten worse under Arroyo's leadership.

The government's anti-terrorist push "makes no distinction between armed guerrillas and unarmed activists, making the latter fair targets of political assassinations and abductions by suspected state-organized death squads," she said. "Arroyo's administration has curtailed civil liberties, disregarded human rights and international humanitarian laws and launched attacks on the people."

She called for international pressure on the government to stop the killing, torture, harassment, kidnapping and assault against activists.

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Associated Press Writer Hrvoje Hranjski contributed to this story from Manila.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070314/ap_on_go_co/us_philippines_killings [link]