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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippines massacre suspect arrested |
| 2009-11-26 |
| The son of a Philippines clan boss, suspected of the massacre of at least 57 journalists and political activists, turned himself in today, as investigators announced that the entire police force of his family's ancestral town was under suspicion of playing a part in the killings. Andal Ampatuan Jnr, whose father is a key local supporter of the Philippines president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was taken by helicopter and plane to the capital Manila for questioning. The authorities said that 20 other men had been arrested on connection with the massacre on the southern island of Mindanao. "There is no truth to that [allegation]," Mr Ampatuan Jnr told reporters before he was flown out. The entire police force of the town of Ampatuan name are also under suspicion, according to the country's interior minister Ronaldo Puno. "All members of the Ampatuan police station are under investigation for complicity in the crime," he said today. Soldiers in armoured personnel carriers were patrolling the roads of Maguindanao province, where the massacre took place last Monday. "Most of the armed group that perpetrated this crime have run away towards the mountainous area of Maguindanao," a military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner, told national television. "That is where we are conducting our pursuit operations." Most of the victims were relatives, lawyers and supporters of Ismael Mangudadatu, a rival of the Ampatuan family, who were travelling to register his candidacy in next year's election for provincial governor. Twenty-two of them were journalists covering the event and ten are reported to have been motorists who happened to have been passing by and to have witnessed the massacre. The candidate himself, Ismael Mangudadatu, who had received death threats, sent his wife and sisters and two female lawyers to file his nomination, in the belief that as women they would not be victims of violence. All 24 women in the six vehicle convoy were killed, and apparently raped, and Mr Mangudadatu's sister and aunt were pregnant. Some had hands bound behind their backs; Mr Mangudadatu reported that the body of his wife was mutilated. President Arroyo declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and neighbouring areas on Tuesday, and promised to bring the killers to justice for what she called "a supreme act of inhumanity". Yesterday her ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD party expelled Andal Ampatuan senior and junior and another son, Zaldy, who is governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. |
| Posted by:ryuge |