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US rights group demands end to xenophobia, Islamophobia, US wars

In commemoration of International Human Rights Day and their organization’s 11th Anniversary, members of the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, or NYCHRP, will engage in two major protest actions today to demand an end to xenophobia, Islamophobia, and wars led by the United States around th

First, NYCHRP will take to the streets and join a large demonstration in Columbus Circle called for by Arab and Muslim communities and human rights activists in New York City to express solidarity with Iraqi and Syrian refugees, who have lately been the target of racist, xenophobic policy making and media attacks. The demonstration is in response to Republican presidential candidate nominee Donald Trump’s campaign to ban Muslims from the United States and the House of Representatives passing of the stringent American SAFE Act of 2015 (H.R. 4038) on November 19, 2015, which would add further restrictions to people seeking refuge in the United States.

Second, NYCHRP will participate in BAYAN USA’s “No More Money for Blood!” campaign to protest the proposed increase of U.S. military aid to the Philippines in the federal budget, which the U.S. Congress is scheduled to approve on Friday, December 11, 2015. The U.S. currently sends $50 million to the Philippines in military aid annually. If approved, the U.S. will then send $79 million to the Philippines annually.

“While we decry xenophobia in all its forms, we must also condemn the root causes of the Iraqi and Syrian refugees’ plight – decades of U.S. military intervention and plunder in the Middle East,” said Jackelyn Mariano, Chairperson of NYCHRP. “Both the Philippines and the Middle East have a common imperialist enemy. That is why today we extend our fighting power both to standing in solidarity with the refugees and the Muslim and Arab communities in the U.S. who face xenophobic attacks, as well as to the Philippine people who face the brunt of military attacks fueled by U.S. aid.”

Critics of xenophobia towards Iraqi and Syrian refugees consistently identify that the root of extremism, war, and suffering in their homelands is a consistent policy produced by the collusion of Western empires and the Middle Eastern international bourgeoisie set to gain control of natural resources and political power in the region. Militarization and extraction of natural resources perpetuated by the U.S. through proxy wars have strengthened extremist groups like ISIS as well as exacerbated the lack of access to water and basic necessities. These policies have directly and negatively impacted the lives and welfare of people, especially the poor, in the region, who then have no choice but to flee for safety.

The U.S. has historically enacted the same policies in their “second front” of the Global War on Terror, the Philippines. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), which, in addition to aid, also receives on the ground training from U.S. troops enacted through unequal military agreements such as the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), have intensified their attacks on the Lumad, indigenous peoples in the Philippines’ southern island of Mindanao.

In order to enforce and secure mining operations that are granted by the Philippine government to large-scale foreign corporations, the AFP systematically attacks, harasses, and intimidates Lumad communities to forcibly evacuate and displace them from their ancestral lands. The military operations, fueled by foreign capitalist plunder of natural resources, aim to silence the Lumad from their veritable right to free, prior, and informed consent and the right to live peacefully in the safety of their homes. Millions of displaced Lumad people are virtually refugees within the Philippines, unprotected by their own government and rampaged by U.S. military expanding operations on their lands.

Similarly, people from Iraq and Syria are also reeling from the acts of imperialist powers, and are desperate to find some reprieve by fleeing to other countries like the United States. “The U.S. has to own up to the destructive consequences of its own extractive capitalist policies and avoid further replicating hatred, extremism, and strife by employing Islamophobic policies domestically that further curtail and restrict the rights and freedoms of survivors of war and catastrophe,” said Rodrigo Bacus, a member of NYCHRP. “We must open up our borders to fellow humans seeking refuge from war-torn areas. We must especially rise to this duty when the wars they are escaping have been fueled by our own country’s intervention and military backing.”

Iraqi and Syrian refugees already go through a complex and elaborate processes and lengthy background checks to appease concerns over national security and anti-terrorism. These processes may take years to complete and force refugees into a dangerous situation where too much time spent in the process may be too late to reach safety. “The more restrictions, background checks, and complications are put in the way of a refugee application, the less likely refugees will be successful overall in fleeing the dangers that are clear and present in their homelands,” continued Bacus. “The U.S. has an obligation to refugees under international law to protect people when their life and liberty would be in danger. The American SAFE Act of 2015 completely runs afoul of human rights norms.”

“The American people must reevaluate what fuels our anger during this refugee crisis. We cannot blame victims of war. We also have to face our own complicity in funding wars abroad,” stated Mariano. “Over fifty percent of the U.S. federal budget goes towards military spending. The result of that are mounting death tolls and decreased resources for basic human needs domestically. Private corporations profit off of war, discrimination, and xenophobia while our public education, housing, and health systems suffer.”

Starting today, NYCHRP will join BAYAN USA in a social media blast to demand that the U.S. Congress, as it votes on the federal budget, cut military aid to the Philippines.

“As U.S.-based Filipinos and allies, we do not want our tax dollars funneled towards killing our own people,” said Mariano. Activists will Tweet their demands to members of the Congressional Budget Committee, including Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Bill Pascrell (R-NJ), and Donald Norcross (D-NJ), and members of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee, including Nita Lowey (D-NY), Jose Serrano (D-NY), and Barbara Lee (D-CA).

#HRTrumpsOppression
#StandUp4Syrians
#StandUp4Iraqis
#CutUSMilitaryAid2PH
#StopTheKillings

Reference:
Jackelyn Mariano
Chairperson,
New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP)
nychrp@gmail.com

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New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP) is a local education and advocacy group based in New York City that works to promote social, economic, and political alternatives that foster democracy and peace based on justice in the Philippines and for Filipinos in the diaspora today.

NYCHRP shares the vision of human rights advanced by the National Democratic movement of the Philippines. NYCHRP educates, organizes, and mobilizes people and communities in NYC to take progressive action to uphold and support human rights in the Philippines and throughout the world.

Manilakbayan to AFP: Arrest and dismantle paramilitary groups

QUEZON CITY – From one Surigao native to another.

A lumad youth who lost her father and a school director from paramilitary killings demanded Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hernando Iriberri to arrest the killers to show his sincerity to bring justice to the Manobo community in Surigao del Sur.

Michelle Campos, daughter of slain Datu Dionel Campos, reacted to Irriberi’s interview in the Philippine Daily Inquirer where he admitted the slain ALCADEV community school director Emerito Samarca was his relative. Irriberi also hails from Surigao del Sur.

“If blood is thicker than water, and if he really wants peace and justice, then he should arrest the Magahat-Bagani paramilitary who killed my father, Tatay Emok and Datu Sinzo,” Campos said.

Campos, who is one of the main speakers of the Manilakbayan ng Mindanao campaign last month, is dismayed that the killers are still freely roaming in her province, as attested by Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Pimentel, who likewise urged for the arrest and disbandment of the paramilitary groupd..

“As simple as it may be, the fact still remains that the killers, Garito Layno and brothers Loloy and Bobby Tejero who were members of the paramilitary group Magahat-Bagani Force are still roaming free and yet to be arrested,” she said.

Campos also challenged the AFP head to listen to the Manobo evacuees who have been staying for three months at the Tandag provincial gym, who want to return to their villages without fear of the Magahat.

Manilakbayan spokesperson Kerlan Fanagel also called on authorities to dismantle not just Magahat-Bagani but also other paramilitary groups.

It has been three (3) months since the massacre, but despite of the warrants of arrest issued against them, the perpetrators still roam free.

“The perpetrators are bold to massacre fellow Lumad in public because they know their actions run parallel to the doctrines of Oplan Bayanihan, to kill with impunity,” said Fanagel.

According to Fanagel, Mindanao has 24 paramilitary groups such as the Alamara, Task Force Kitaqom, Calpet-Egua, New Indigenous People’s Army for Reform (NIPAR), Bungkatol Liberation Front (BULIF) and many others who are armed and supported by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to augment the states’ counterinsurgency campaign.

The Magahat-Bagani paramilitary group already had arrest warrants.

Fanagel also identified the people behind the paramilitary groups who should be arrested for the death of 63 lumad: Nestor Apas, Laris Masaloon, Ongging Masaloon, Lumansad Sibogan, Pogsing Bubunan and Alambi Salangani, all leaders of Alamara, and all of whom are still actively seen among those with the soldiers in several military operations in Davao del Norte, and Butchoy Salusad, leader of paramilitary group, NIPAR in Bukidnon.

He said the AFP threatens lumad, forcibly recruits them as paramilitaries and use them to kill fellow Lumad.

He added that the paramilitaries, as well as the AFP and their trained CAFGUs and SCAAs,  are part of the investment defense force that serve to secure the interest of local and foreign mining and plantation investors in Mindanao.

He added that, lumads of ‘Manilakbayan’ demanded a quick response, and that on December 10, on the 65th year commemoration of the human rights day, the Lumad have had it with the Aquino administration’s lip service to upholding human rights.

“Should these demands remain unresolved on December 10, the Lumad hold Aquino and Iriberri responsible for the injustice suffered by the victims of Lianga massacre, by the 63 victims of Lumad killed during Aquino’s term, and the massive displacement as consequences of their persistence to push through with the counter-insurgency measure Oplan Bayanihan” Fanagel concluded.

http://www.karapatan.org/+Manilakbayan+to+AFP%E2%80%99s+Iriberri%3A+Arrest+and+dismantle+paramilitary+groups

Reference:
Kerlan Fanagel
Spokesperson
Manilakbayan ng Mindanao 2015
09187692888

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
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Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman,
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.

Philippine state forces rape women; 7 of 10 victims minors

“Soldiers do not only kill, they rape children, too,” Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general said on the 5th day of countdown to December 10, International Human Rights Day. “Amid the rising political killings under the BS Aquino regime, 10 women have been raped by state forces; and seven of them are minors,” Palabay said.

“Soldiers and members of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) undressed girls, as young as 12 years old, and raped them. None of the perpetrators of the documented rape cases have been arrested or brought to jail,” she added.

Valeriano Masaang Jr, a.k.a “Striker” an assistant of an officer of the 2nd Infantry Division raped a 12-year-old girl in June 2012. “Nini” (not her real name) was using the washroom when Masaang, who was drunk, went in and punched Nini and started to touch her private parts. He threatened to kill her mother if she said a word. To further intimidate her, Masaang took out a knife and put it on the floor for Nini to see while she was being raped.

Elements of the 68th Infantry Battalion-Bravo Company, identified as Galot, Daniel and Jay-Ar raped in two separate occasions a 14-year-old Lumad girl “Tess”. The 68th IB Bravo Company was encamped in Sitio Nasilaban, Brgy. Palma Gil, Talaingod. The parents of “Tess” were away for a week to harvest corn in another village, leaving “Tess” and her siblings under the care of their grandmother whose house was used as a camp by some soldiers. On May 6, 2015 Tess was alone in her grandmother’s house when Galot entered and raped her. After Galot, another soldier, Daniel, also raped Tess. On July 4, Tess was playing with her classmates after school when Jay-ar, also a soldier, led her to a grassy portion of a field and raped her. The case of “Tess” was later used as an excuse by Congresswoman Nancy Catamco, the police and the Alamara paramilitary group to break-in at the UCCP-Haran where hundreds of evacuees were housed, including “Tess” and her parents.

On January 30, 2010, members of the 9th IB Bravo Company namely Alex Briones, Archie Vasquez, Gilbert Quinito and a certain Llagas, gang raped ‘Vilma”, 21, inside the 9th IB camp in Aroroy, Masbate. After the four soldiers took turns raping “Vilma”, Briones raped her again. After the incident, Briones sent messages to “Vilma” threatening to kill if she would tell anyone. Three days later, “Vilma” received a text message from Briones asking for a meeting because he had something important to tell her. Briones  picked up “Vilma” and brought her to a lodging house where she was raped again.

“We believe there are more rape victims by soldiers and paramilitary forces but, they are afraid and ashamed to report or file a complaint,” Palabay said. “These heinous acts are not isolated cases that can be attributed to individual “bad eggs” in the military. The act of rape serves as a terror tactic to shame and silence women, their families and the community. This barbarism should be condemned, and military officials who employ this tactic in their counterinsurgency program should be punished,” Palabay said.

“BS Aquino will be held accountable for the rape not only of our nation but also of our daughters,” Palabay concluded.

Reference:
Cristina “Tinay” Palabay
Secretary General
+63917-3162831

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580
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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
<publicinfo@karapatan.org>
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Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman,
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.

Dismantle the prison walls, free all political prisoners

Prisons all over the world teem with political prisoners. The former symbolizes power, control, repression; the latter, consciousness, freedom, struggle. The former desires to keep the status quo; the latter, to dismantle the unjust structures, free the world from their rein and bring about substantive change.

With the commemoration of the International Day in Solidarity with Political Prisoners on December 3, the cause and aspirations of political prisoners are at the fore, especially because this is an era of the worst imperialist crisis and the onslaught of the gravest imperialist wars and plunder of earth’s land and resources. The Commission 3 (Defense of Human Rights at the Collective and Individual Levels in the Civil, Political, Economic. Social and Cultural Fields) of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) salutes the fortitude and determination of the political prisoners, who have risked their lives in defense of human rights, fundamental freedoms and justice, and now are confined for years in jails. On the other hand, Commission 3 vehemently condemns the diabolical attacks on these rights and freedoms as imperialism struggles from the fetters of its crisis.

Across the globe, anti-terror/national security laws and other legal instruments legitimate arrests and incarceration of activists, human right defenders and revolutionaries. Trumped-up criminal charges are slapped on them to hide the political nature of the violations against them. If they are put on trial, these proceedings are convoluted and lengthy. In detention, they face torture and other cruel and inhumane treatment, compounded by the inhuman prison conditions. The practice of isolation detention is designed to break the spirit of prisoners and force them to denounce their aspirations and political beliefs.

In Palestine, there are more than 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including women and children.

In Peru, Manuel Ruben Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, former professor of philosophy and leader of the Communist Party of Peru (called by the Shining Path release), which launched an armed struggle in May 1980, was captured by the Peruvian government in 1992 and sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of terrorism and treason. Guzmán, 81 years, is currently detained at the maximum security prison of the Callao Naval Base Military, the port of Lima.

Elena Iparraguirre, also a senior leader of the Communist Party of Peru and partner of Guzmán, is imprisoned in Canto Grande prison in Lima. Two years ago, four human rights lawyers, along with 34 political activists, were arrested in Peru on false charges. Lawyers Alfredo Crespo, Carlos Gamero and Manuel Fajardo, are also activists. To date, there are about 300 political prisoners, including five women, with sentences of 25 years to life. Also, having served their 25-year sentences; the government refuses to give them their freedom, in the case of Osman Morote Barrionuevo (70 years old); Margot Liendo Gil (66 years old); Victoria Trujillo and Agurto, (53 years old). The four are survivors of the genocide of the Castro Castro prison in May 1992, where the State killed 42 political prisoners.

Columbia, meanwhile, is regarded as the country with the worst human rights record in the Western Hemisphere with 9,500 political prisoners languishing in its jails without charge or due process.  These include student activists, unionists, human rights defenders, and leaders of indigenous peoples and people’s organizations who are critical of government policies.

In Turkey, many are languishing in jails and have no chance of release under the anti-terror law. Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish freedom movement, is held for 16 years under strict isolation on Imrali Island in the sea of Marmara after his conviction to life imprisonment. Members of Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan Committee and representatives of Kurdish institutions in Europe held a five-day hunger strike, from September 28- October 2015, to demand the freedom of Ocalan.

In the Philippines, 555 political prisoners, including twenty National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultants, are confined in jails and detention centers all over the country as of September 2015. Many of the political prisoners have long been in jail and more are being added to the list, due to the continuing counter-insurgency policy, Oplan Bayanihan, of the US-Aquino regime patterned after the US Counter Insurgency Guide of 2009, which prods the practice of the filing of trumped up charges against activists, peace consultants and alleged members of the Communist Party of the Philippines. The consultants of the NDFP to the peace talks with the Government of the Philippines (GPH) were illegally arrested and are under detention, in violation of previous peace agreements signed between the two parties, such as the Hague Declaration and the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee (JASIG). Among the peace consultants detained are Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria Tiamzon, who together with their five companions, were illegally arrested in March 2014, in gross violation of the said agreements, while they on their way to monitor the relief, rehabilitation and rebuilding efforts of the revolutionary movement on typhoon Haiyan affected areas. Benito and Wilma Tiamzon are charged with numerous trumped up criminal cases.

These violations are in addition to the numeorus cases of political killings, disappearances, forced evacuation, attacks against schools and other violations against peasants, indigenous peoples, workers, women, youth and other sectors in the context of the burgeoning people’s resistance to imperialist war and plunder.

With the era of imperialist crisis is the time, too, when prison cells swell with indigenous peoples. They, too, are under attack for their defense of their ancestral domains of vast land and rich resources, which are additional frontiers for imperialist greed.

In India, the government, under a US–directed military campaign called “Operation Green Hunt” launched a genocidal war against the Indian tribal group resisting the encroachment of transnational mining corporations on their land.

In Guatemala, leaders of Monte Olivo community and nearby indigenous q’eqchi’ communities were arrested and detained for their opposition to the theft of their land to give way to the construction by the Hidro Santa Rita company of a hydroelectric plant that would sell electricity abroad.  In prison, they were beaten, denied of food and medicine, and experienced other horrific treatment.

In Mexico, its government’s free trade agreements and security alliances with the US and the Merida Plan to supposedly combat narco-trafficking are behind the widespread use of anti-terror, security, and espionage laws to infringe on collective and individual civil and political rights; and of narco-traffickers which are in essence paramilitaries. From 2006 to 2015, there have been 300,000 deaths due to the government’s “war against narco-traffickers” or more aptly put, “war against the population.” Most of those who were killed are trade union and indigenous leaders such as the case of leaders of the Frente Popular Revolucionario (FPR). There are more than 700 political prisoners, including 29 from the FPR; 25,000 disappeared, including the case of the 43 students in Ayotzinapa on September 2014; thousands of displaced and hidden graves; and the use of mass communications to suppress people’s rights.

In the US government’s military industrial complex is its prison system, a system being used to institutionalize injustice and brutalise its perceived enemies in its own backyard and wherever it pursues its war of aggression. At the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center located in the US Naval Base, there are still 148 remaining prisoners out of the 779 held there since it opened in 2002. The inmates, mostly captured by US forces in Afghanistan and detained without the benefit of trial, experienced physical and mental torture that broke down the state of mind of many, the condition that was worse than that of a caged animal.

Mumia Abu Jamal, an internationally known black writer and radio journalist and a former member of the Black Panther Party who has spent the more than 30 years in prison, almost all of it in solitary confinement in Pennsylvania. He was wrongly accused, arrested and detained for murder of a police officer in Philadelphia, and has since been on death row despite a federal court’s overturning of his death sentence.  Despite his incarceration, he has been very vocal against the US military industrial complex, overt and covert US military operations abroad, and its neo-colonial economic policies in underdeveloped countries. The Black community, migrants, and communities of colored people in the US are all similar targets of killings, harassment and mass incarceration.

This current global scenario of gross violations of human rights and freedoms and the incarceration of multitude of peoples, who respond to the call of peoples against oppression and exploitation, exhort us to strengthen our solidarity and resolve to persevere in our struggle against imperialist plunder and wars that spawn a socially unjust and inhuman world.

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
INTENSIFY THE STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALIST PLUNDER AND WARS!

http://www.karapatan.org/DISMANTLE+THE+PRISON+WALLS%2C+FREE+ALL+POLITICAL+PRISONERS

Reference:    
Cristina “Tinay” Palabay
Secretary General
+63917-3162831

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580

———————————————————————
PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
———————————————————————

Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman,
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.

Hand over Pemberton! No special treatment! — Anakbayan-USA

“Hand over Pemberton! No special treatment!” This is the clear message of Anakbayan-USA, a national Filipino youth and student organization, in response to the reports of U.S. authorities refusing to turn over U.S. Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton to Philippine custody after being convicted of homicide.

Pemberton was found guilty of homicide, considered a lesser offense than murder, sentenced to serve 6-12 years in prison and ordered to pay the Laude family $95,000 by the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court. Despite his conviction, the U.S. government is colluding with the Philippine government to undermine the decision that Pemberton be detained in Philippine prison.

“We demand the President Obama respect the national sovereignty of the Philippines and immediately order U.S. authorities to hand over convicted killer Joseph Scott Pemberton to the Philippine authorities to serve his sentence,” said Yves Nibungco, national chairperson of Anakbayan-USA.

The youth activists also called on the abrogation of “unequal” agreements between the Philippines and the United States such as the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

“In light of this injustice, we renew our call for the junking of both the VFA and the EDCA. On top of being a violation of Philippine sovereignty, these agreements condone and protect murderers like Pemberton and further endanger the Philippines and the Filipino people,” Nibungco continued.

Anakbayan-USA also blasts the “special treatment” being provided to the convicted U.S. serviceman. “The Department of Defense recently confirmed that they are constructing a special detention facility for Pemberton. What’s next? Wireless internet access, gourmet meals and a personal gym?” Nibungco retorted. “This is another shameless subservient act by the Philippine government under its imperialist master,” Nibungco added.

Anakbayan-USA is comprised of 11 chapters and is the U.S. chapter of Anakbayan Philippines a national democratic mass organization of Filipino youth working to educate, organize and mobilize the community to address important issues that affect Filipinos in the US and the Philippines.

Reference:
Yves Nibungco
National Chairperson, Anakbayan-USA