By Neil A Alcober/Manila Times


The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the government to investigate alleged mistreatment and abuse of detainees, including children, by state security forces in the conflict-ridden Zamboanga City.
According to the HRW, the government has detained dozens of suspected rebels from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) since fighting began in the city on September 9.
Knowledgeable sources told HRW that rebel suspects have reported being beaten and otherwise mistreated by military and police personnel before being turned over to the San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm, a government prison facility on the outskirts of Zamboanga City where most suspected rebels are being held. Torture of alleged MNLF suspects is reported to have occurred at the Southern City Colleges, a school in downtown Zamboanga where much of the September fighting occurred.
“The Philippines government should promptly investigate all credible accounts of detainee mistreatment, take appropriate action to stop it, and punish those responsible,” said Brad Adams, HRW-Asia director.
“The Philippines security forces’ past record of detainee abuse demands that authorities be doubly vigilant in Zamboanga.”
As of October 1, there were 277 suspected rebels in police custody, 229 of them at the San Ramon Penal Farm, 41 at the Zamboanga Central Police District, 1 at the police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group facility, and six children at the Department of Social Welfare and Development. As of the end of September, 97 of these detainees had been charged with rebellion, while charges are still being prepared against the others.
The rights group documented one incident, reportedly repeated elsewhere, in which rebels used hostages as “human shields” and the Philippines military attacked the rebels, causing civilian deaths and injuries. The fighting killed 202 rebel fighters, soldiers, and civilians, displaced nearly 120,000 people, and resulted in the destruction of more than 10,000 homes.
HRW received reports from several knowledgeable sources of beatings and other mistreatment of suspected MNLF rebels in detention.
The rights group said that a 77-year-old man alleged that soldiers pushed him to the ground and then kicked and stomped on him repeatedly after he was arrested as a suspected MNLF rebel.
Three teenage boys —one aged 17 and the others aged 15 — alleged that state security forces detained them in the first days of the fighting on suspicion that they were MNLF soldiers. Each said he was blindfolded and then repeatedly punched, slapped, and kicked.
HRW said the three youths denied that they were MNLF rebels, but said MNLF rebels forced them to help feed hostages during the height of the fighting in Santa Barbara village, Zamboanga City.
“They told us to admit that we were MNLF,” one 15-year-old told HRW. “One of them pushed me to the ground and kicked me in the back.”
The 17-year-old said security forces beat him to try to force him to admit he was a rebel fighter. He said he eventually lied and said he was with the MNLF to get the beatings to stop.
The other 15-year-old said state security forces tied his hands so tightly that the rope cut into his wrists. He said he was whipped with a rope that left a bruise on his side.
HRW also said that various sources told them that detainees have had very limited or no access to lawyers and family members. Police and military personnel continue to interrogate the San Ramon detainees, including those charged with offences, without the presence of legal counsel, a violation of Philippines and international law guaranteeing legal representation.