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You are here: Home News Migrante Europe What’s a war criminal doing in Switzerland? Filipinos in Europe ask
What’s a war criminal doing in Switzerland? Filipinos in Europe ask PDF Print E-mail
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Thursday, 25 January 2007 18:55
“What’s a human rights violator and war criminal doing in Davos, Switzerland hobnobbing with businessmen?” This was the question asked by Migrante Europe, a network of patriotic Filipino organizations across Europe, on the scheduled visit of President Gloria Arroyo to Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos beginning Jan. 26. “What’s a human rights violator and war criminal doing in Davos, Switzerland hobnobbing with businessmen?”

This was the question asked by Migrante Europe, a network of patriotic Filipino organizations across Europe, on the scheduled visit of President Gloria Arroyo to Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos beginning Jan. 26.

“The victims of human rights violations and the families of the victims of political killings point to Gloria Arroyo and her military clique as the masterminds of the gangland-style execution of their loved ones,” declared  Grace Punongbayan, coordinator of MIGRANTE Europe. Gloria Arroyo, according to Punongbayan, has also been accused of ordering the abductions and disappearances of countless others and of imposing a de facto martial law in many regions in the Philippines.

Punongbayan said an Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) internal document that was leaked recently to the media revealed a plan to intensify the assassination of leaders of people’s organizations and other non-combatants. This plan, says Punongbayan, is meant to terrorize the people, prevent progressive political parties and the political opposition from winning more seats in the coming congressional and local elections, and ensure that Gloria Arroyo stays in power. Arroyo, she said, is deliberately targeting civilians violating international human rights laws and the Geneva Convention(s).

Punongbayan explained that in her desperation to cling to power, Arroyo wants to make sure that the opposition would not win enough congressional seats to revive the impeachment complaint against her. It takes only 79 votes in the House of Representatives for an impeachment complaint against the President to prosper.

“Top officials of the Arroyo government and the AFP have stepped up their black propaganda against political parties and individuals, accusing them of having links with the armed revolutionary movement, ostensibly to set them up for the kill,” stressed Punongbayan.

Local and international human rights organizations have reported that 820 unarmed civilians have become victims of political killings since Arroyo came to power in 2001.

“The Swiss government, the European Union and the peoples of Europe should deliver a stronger message to Arroyo and her criminal regime who have maliciously ignored the calls of the international community, business leaders and international human rights organizations, including several Swiss-based entities, to stop the killings in the Philippines,” Punongbayan said.

“The Arroyo regime must not be allowed to wash its bloody hands by hobnobbing with foreign and business leaders, sell a rosy picture of the Philippine economy that is actually kept afloat by the hard-earned remittances of migrant Filipinos, and whitewash its war crimes and gross disregard for human rights, particularly the Geneva Conventions, by killing civilians and non-combatants,” she further stressed.
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