BY EMILY VITAL
Bulatlat
Breaking News
Posted June 21,2007 – 4:08 p.m.

Members of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) and allied groups trooped to the European Union (EU) Embassy in Makati City , June 21, 11 a.m. to appeal before the EU to stop providing aid to the Arroyo government.

A team of six experts from the EU will start its mission on June 18. Ambassador Alistair MacDonald, EU’s top diplomat to the Philippines, said the EU Needs Assessment Mission comes in response to an official request by the Philippine government for technical assistance in areas such as the establishment of special courts and the training of judges and special prosecutors.

In a statement, Dr. Carol Araullo, Bayan chairperson, said, “”We appeal to the EU to desist from channelling military assistance through the authoritarian regime of Mrs. Arroyo.”

The Bayan leader called on the countries of the EU to immediately stop their military aid to the Arroyo government because the Armed Forces of the Philippines has repeatedly been implicated in the spate of extrajudicial killings by the families of the victims, the government’s own Melo Commission, UN special rapporteurs, Amnesty International and scores of international fact finding missions.

Araullo described the government’s request for technical assistance as both hypocritical and pernicious. “In the first place, the spate of killings is part and parcel of the Arroyo regime’s intensified counter-insurgency program. The Arroyo government is not sincere about resolving this issue because it quietly condones, if not masterminds, the killing of activists and their alleged supporters as well as members of independent media organizations.”

Araullo said that no amount of training of judges and prosecutors will be sufficient to stop the killings. “If she chooses to — only Arroyo — as Commander-in-Chief of the AFP, can put a stop to this carnage by calling the military and police top brass to account,” she said.

Araullo noted how the courts are being used to violate the rights of progressive leaders critical of the Arroyo administration. She cited the rebellion charges filed against the six “leftist” or progressive party-list representatives. “If the Arroyo government will train more Raul Gonzalezes, justice will remain elusive and repressive practices, more entrenched.” (Bulatlat.com)

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