US aid tied to RP action on killings

11/05/2007 06:26:00 PM

US Senate has served notice it wants the Arroyo administration to prosecute human rights violators, including soldiers, before it approves additional military aid.

Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo Monday said he had thanked the US Senate for approving an increase in regular military funding to the Philippines from $11 million to $30 million.

But in the first significant international backlash over the wave of killings of left-wing activists blamed on Philippine security forces, the US Senate also set conditions for the release of an additional $2 million in military assistance.
Two million??? They're only withholding two million? There's still 30 million that's still being given unconditionlly!

Read the rest of the article on Inquirer.net.

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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.