Philippine army on defensive after killings charges

MANILA, Feb 22 (Reuters) The Philippine military today rejected a U N investigator's charge that soldiers were responsible for many extra-judicial killings, but it was dealt a fresh blow by the release of a damning report into the murders.

Armed forces chief General Hermogenes Esperon shot back at Philip Alston, the UN's special rapporteur on extra-judicial executions, who said the military was in a state of ''almost total denial'' about dealing with those responsible for the murders.

''I believe that Mr Alston might be in a state of denial himself,'' Esperon told a packed news conference.

But the military was again assailed in a damning report by a government-created inquiry, which was finally published today after being kept under wraps for weeks.

The panel, headed by retired judge Jose Melo, said ''elements in the military'' were behind the killing of some of the hundreds of left-wing activists murdered in unsolved shootings.

''To maintain otherwise would be closing one's eyes to reality,'' the Melo Report said.

Like Alston, the report said there did not appear to be state sanction for the shootings, which are frequently carried out by masked men on motorbikes.

But the inquiry said retired general Jovito Palparan, called ''The Butcher'' by leftist groups, and some of his superior officers may be held responsible for failing to prevent, punish or condemn the killings.

''It is in this light that the whip must be cracked to bring the rogue military elements back in line,'' the commission wrote.

In statements released with the report, Esperon called the findings ''strained, unfair and a blank accusation'' and Palparan said he had made every effort to find any killers among his men.

RHETORICAL SUPPORT President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has called for special courts to deal with political killings and asked the armed forces to update its rules on command responsibility, but analysts doubt there will be a major impact on the military.

The government has traditionally shied away from harsh punishment of the military, which can make or break an administration and helped propel Arroyo to power in 2001.

''The fact that Macapagal's own position as leader is closely tied to military support would suggest rhetorical recognition of the report but probably not too much quick change,'' said Malcolm Cook, a programme director at the Lowy Institute in Australia.

Arroyo, who is also commander-in-chief, said she would take Alston's views and the Melo Report ''constructively.'' ''The government is not in denial, these killings will be resolved and the armed forces shall continue to be a vanguard of freedom,'' she said in a statement.

The government and the military have repeatedly blamed communist rebel group, the New People's Army (NPA), for the murders, saying the organisation is purging its own ranks.

Lawmaker Teodoro Casino, who is a member of Bayan Muna, a leftist group whose members have been among those killed, said their statements were ''a pathetic attempt at a whitewash''.

Local rights group Karapatan has said more than 800 people, most of them left-wing activists, have been murdered or reported missing since 2001.

Many of those killed are members of organisations the government views as fronts for the NPA, which has been waging a decades-long insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people.

The Melo Report said soldiers should not to take the law into their own hands to defeat the NPA.

''While communist insurgency must be addressed, the fight against it must not be at the expense of the constitution and the laws of the nation, and it hardly needs emphasising, not at the expense of innocent civilians.'' REUTERS BDP MIR KP1448