Many of the hundreds of unsolved killings of political activists in the Philippines were carried out by the military, says a United Nations special envoy.
The findings of Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, are a damning indictment of the Government of President Gloria MacapagalArroyo, and shook the Filipino establishment.
Since Arroyo came to power in 2001, at least 832 people have been killed or gone missing under mysterious circumstances, 356 of them left-wing political activists, according to a local human rights group, Karapatan.
After a 10-day fact-finding mission to the Philippines, Alston said he was convinced a "significant" number of the killings could be linked to the armed forces. Although he was unable to give an exact figure, Alston said: "I am certain the number is high enough to be distressing."
The Philippines has been fighting a communist insurgency by the New People's Army (NPA) that has cost 40,000 lives since 1969. Last year Arroyo declared "all-out war" on the communists. The country is also facing various Muslim insurgent groups.
Alston said he did not believe Arroyo had personally ordered the killings, and instead laid the blame at the feet of the military. "I do not believe that there's a policy at the top designed to direct that these killings take place," he said.
The military has long claimed the unsolved killings were a purge of its own ranks by the NPA. But Alston said that theory was "especially unconvincing".
"The armed forces remain in a state of almost total denial of its need to respond effectively and authentically to the significant number of killings which have been convincingly attributed to them," he said.
Killings of this sort intimidated the public and sent a message of vulnerability to "all but the most well-connected".
