Manila "Gestapo Style" Offensive Not to Target Mosques
MANILA, July 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ruled out Saturday that mosques in the Muslim-majority Basilan area would be targeted during the hunt for the Abu Sayyaf bandits, carried out now under a strict state of emergency since last week.
Arroyo said that the rights of Abu Sayyaf members would be fully respected after the government declared a massive crackdown against lawlessness in Mindanao.
However some critics in Manila and Basilan said they fear the order of arrests without warrant might draw support for the Abu Sayyaf since the military is bound to make mistakes in its mission.
The "warrant-less" arrests mean that the military can arrest any person they deem a suspect and previous experience has shown that in the process they often arrest innocent people.
Human rights workers have decried the crackdown, calling it a "Gestapo style" saturation drive open to abuses by the military.
The bandits are holding American and Filipino hostages on the island of Basilan. Arroyo gave the military and police wide powers of arrest on Friday in an intensified offensive against the separatist group.
"The Department of Justice has issued guidelines on how to carry out the arrests.... The regulations are there so that it won't be said that human rights were violated," Arroyo said in an interview with a local radio station.
The rules included the need to file appropriate cases against the suspects within a given number of days. The suspects should be released immediately if this could not be done.
Amidst criticism that there has been violation of mosques during the crack down in Basilan, presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao clarified on Saturday that "no mosque was entered by the military".
He added that Arroyo has "very strict orders" not to enter any mosque.
"Even in the pursuit of armed men entering a mosque, the military has to get the religious leaders' help before entering the mosque," Tiglao said.
Last year, the military entered several mosques in Sulu on Jolo Island during the intensity of the armed operation against the same Abu Sayyaf group.
The incidents caused major tremor in Mindanao and the then Joseph Estrada administration was slammed by separatists and religious leaders around the South East Asian region.
So far the authorities have arrested 100 people from the islands of Sulu and Basilan in Mindanao. The intensified operations would go on until all the Abu Sayyaf members and supporters are arrested, officials here said.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) also backed Arroyo's move, even though it warned the military to move with caution.
CHR chairman Aurora Navarette Recina said the military must file necessary charges in court within the prescribed period to avoid being charged with human rights violations.
"If the plan is to declare a state of lawlessness in order to round up some people in 'warrant-less arrests', they better make sure all the parameters for 'warrant-less' arrest are present," Recina said.
