US Behind Bloody Oplan Bantay Laya, Book Reveals Published on August 28, 2010

 US Behind Bloody Oplan Bantay Laya, Book Reveals

Published on August 28, 2010

Book Review: Oplan Bantay Laya: The US-Arroyo Campaign of Terror and Counterinsurgency in the Philippines (IBON Books, IBON Foundation Inc.)

By RONALYN V. OLEA

Bulatlat.com
MANILA — The US government has blood in its hands, the newly published book by Ibon Foundation reveals.
 

 The fourth in the research institute’s series on State Terror and Human Rights in the Philippines, Oplan Bantay Laya: The US-Arroyo Campaign of Terror and Counterinsurgency in the Philippines (Oplan Bantay Laya for brevity) is a compilation of original and reposted articles on Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL), now considered by human rights advocates here and abroad as the bloodiest counterinsurgency (COIN) program implemented by the Philippine government.

 No less than United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston affirmed what human rights group Karapatan has been saying all along – that the spate of extrajudicial killings is sanctioned by the OBL. Alston who visited the country in February 2007 blamed the Arroyo government’s COIN program for the killings.

The OBL’s core principle does not distinguish civilians from combatants. In crushing what the military calls “political infrastructures” of the Left, leaders and members of people’s organizations and party list groups are targeted for neutralization. 

According to Karapatan, Arroyo’s OBL has taken the lives of 1,205 unarmed individuals, mostly activists and members of progressive people’s organizations..... MORE
Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://www.bulatlat.com/main/2010/08/28/us-behind-bloody-oplan-bantay-laya-book-reveals/