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Seven murder charges laid against politician
Sydney Mornign Herald - November 28, 2009
Cecil Morella, Manila – Andal Ampatuan jnr, Mayor of Datu Unsay and son of the provincial governor of Maguindanao, in the southern Philippines, was charged with seven counts of murder yesterday amid claims that soldiers and police took part in the massacre on Monday.
Justice officials said they had taken 17 affidavits and expected to file further charges. Mr Ampatuan denies the charges.
The Justice Secretary, Agnes Devanadera, said she had been told soldiers and police, under orders from a local politician, helped carry out the massacre of at least 57 defenceless people, including women who were shot in the genitals.
Late yesterday the two army chiefs with direct responsibilities for the southern Philippine region were relieved of their posts and ordered back to Manila. They will be investigated for their actions surrounding the killings, a military spokesman, Romeo Brawner, said.
In the most detailed account yet of the election-linked massacre, an emotional Ms Devanadera said female victims might also have been raped.
"It was horrible. I cannot begin to describe it," she said on television, recounting what she had seen of the bodies as well as the testimony of many of those who had taken part in the killings.
She said the witnesses told prosecutors that Mr Ampatuan ordered his private militia of more than 100 gunmen to open fire on the group in a remote farming area. The militia included soldiers and policemen, she said.
Authorities had already said hundreds of policemen believed loyal to Mr Ampatuan's powerful clan in Maguindanao province had been detained, on suspicion of being directly involved or linked to the massacre. This was the first time soldiers had been specifically implicated.
The order by Mr Ampatuan to kill the group, Ms Devanadera said, allegedly came a short time after the abduction of a convoy of aides and relatives of a rival Muslim politician, Esmael Mangudadatu, and local journalists. The group had been travelling to an election office so Mr Mangudadatu's wife could nominate him to stand against Mr Ampatuan for the post of governor of Maguindanao province in elections next year.
Yesterday Mr Mangudadatu defiantly lodged his documents with the Elections Commission in Sharrif Aguak, the provincial capital of Maguindanao. "Only death can stop me from running," he said. He was escorted by soldiers, a police commander and an army general.
Fifty-seven bodies have been recovered from shallow graves close to a town bearing the Ampatuan name. At least 22 of them were women, police said. Thirty were journalists or media workers and another 15 were motorists believed to be driving past the area at the wrong time, all of whom were apparently killed to eliminate witnesses.
"Given at least 30 journalists and media workers were among those killed, the International Federation of Journalists fears the murderers targeted the convoy because of the media contingent," said Deborah Muir, the federation's Asia-Pacific project officer. Another four media workers remained unaccounted for, she said in Sydney.
Mr Ampatuan, who surrendered to authorities on Thursday, has blamed Muslim rebels for the killings. But Ms Devanadera said many of those who took part in the massacre were clear that he was at the scene, ordering them to open fire and shooting people himself.
"The order was to kill them all... it appeared premeditated," she said. "One of the witnesses said he was the one who was ordering them... another witness saw him firing his gun as well."
She said some of those who took part in the killings, or were ordered to take part, had come forward because of the guilt they felt. "They were bothered by their conscience," she said, while emphasising many of them had given testimony against their former boss. "We have many witnesses, not just one."
Ms Devanadera painted a gruesome picture of the fate of the women at the hands of the militia.
"Even the private parts of the women were shot at. It was horrible... It was done practically to all the women. All the women had their zippers undone. The pants of some were pulled down... We have yet to determine whether they were raped."
Mr Ampatuan is the son of Maguindanao's Governor, a Muslim clan chief of the same name who until this week was a close ally of President Gloria Arroyo's ruling coalition. Maguindanao is on the lawless island of Mindanao, where Muslim clans rule vast areas backed by their own private armies, often out of the national government's control.
Mr Ampatuan snr had been grooming his son to take over as governor of Maguindanao.
[Agence France-Presse, Associated Press.]
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