Canada urges arrests, convictions in killings

3/15/2007 08:02:00 AM

Canada wants “to see arrests, prosecutions, and convictions” of the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings that continue to claim the lives of activists and journalists in the country.

Adding to the international pressure being brought to bear o the Arroyo government over the killings, Steven Rheault-Kihara, counselor for political and economic relations and public affairs of Canada's embassy in the Philippines, also expressed “great concern” that a witness who testified before United Nations special rapporteur Philip Alston was killed over the weekend. Read more from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

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    Democracy, according to the late Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, is "a question of human dignity, [a]nd human dignity is political freedom, the right to freely express opinion and the right to be allowed to criticise and form opinions."

    But exercising political freedom in the Philippines, which purports itself to be a democracy, can lead to death. Since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency of the country in 2001, more than 800 Filipinos murdered in politically-motivated, extra-judicial, targeted killings. Since the 4th quarter of July 2005, one person has been killed every two days. The victims of these brazen acts of violence were all unarmed citizens: lawyers, judges, journalists, medical practitioners, members of cause-oriented groups, priests, church-workers, human rights advocates, laborers and farmers.

    It is widely believed—and the United Nations support this belief—that state security forces are complicit in these crimes.