Envoy, rights group press gov’t for resolute action on massacre
By Michaela P. del Callar 11/23/2010President Aquino needs to ensure a speedy and credible trial of all the suspects in last year’s gruesome massacre of 57 persons in Maguindanao province to assure the country and international community of his administration’s commitment to human rights and rule of law, Britain’s top diplomat to the Philippines yesterday said, adding the trial has so far been alarmingly slow.
A year after the massacre, British Ambassador Stephen Lillie noted that there have been no convictions despite some high-profile arrests or members of the powerful Ampatuan clan and its armed goons, who were blamed for the Nov. 23 carnage, and many other suspects remain at large.
“Justice has yet to be done,” Lillie wrote in his blog.
He said the ongoing debates on whether the trial should be televised is only a minor issue, noting that he is more concerned with the slow-paced movement of the trial.
“I can hardly take exception to the Supreme Court’s opposition to this: British court proceedings are not televised either. What is alarming, however, given the importance of this case, is the glacial pace of the trial, with the court sitting only once a week,” Lillie said..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101123hed2.html
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