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(Bullit Marquez/AP)
Andal Ampatuan Jr is accused of personal involvement in the killing of 57 people
The politician and clan leader accused of ordering the killing of 57 civilians in the southern Philippines last Monday personally beat and shot a number of his victims, according to witnesses.
Andal Ampatuan Jnr, the son of one of the most powerful men on the island of Mindanao, was allegedly seen slapping the wife of a political rival, who was later raped and killed, along with his political supporters, accompanying journalists, and innocent passers-by.
"One of the witnesses said he [Mr Ampatuan Jnr] was the one who was ordering them," the Philippines Justice Minister, Agnes Devanadera, told Manila television. "Another witness saw him firing his gun as well ... The order was to kill them all ... it appeared premeditated."
Ms Devanadera became visibly emotional when she described the way in which the bodies of the victims, around 22 of whom were women, were violated by their attackers.
"It was horrible," she said. "I cannot begin to describe it. Even the private parts of the women were shot at. It was horrible. It was not done to just one. It was done practically to all the women. All the women had their zippers undone. The pants of some were pulled down. We have yet to determine whether they were raped. But it is certain that something bad was done to them."
Fifty-seven bodies have been recovered from a hillside and from shallow graves close to the town that bears the name of Mr Ampatuan's family. Twenty-seven victims were journalists covering the registration of Ismael Mangudadatu, a candidate in next year's election for the governorship of Manguindanao province.
About 15 had no connections to the political campaign at all, but were simply driving past at the time the Mangudadatu convoy was stopped. They appear to have been killed because they would have been able to identify the murderers.
But, according to Ms Devanadera, members of the murder squad have stepped forward to testify against Mr Ampatuan. "They were bothered by their conscience," she said. "We have many witnesses, not just one."
Formal indictment on murder charges is expected today. "They [the prosecutors] will ask the court for Ampatuan Jnr to be denied bail," Ms Devanadera said." I don't see how he could get out of jail at this time, with the kind of evidence that we have."
According to the national police chief, Jesus Verzosa, six senior officers, including the provincial chief and his deputy, 20 officers of the Ampatuan police station, and around 400 members of a local militia loyal to the Ampatuan family are in custody, although not all are suspects.
"There's been a total misuse of our law enforcement personnel in the area, and complicity by law enforcement officers in this crime," the country's Interior Minister, Ronaldo Puno, said. "[The police] forgot that they should defend the Republic of the Philippines, not their Godfather."
Mr Mangudadatu, whose family are longstanding rivals of the Ampatuan clan, had asked his wife to register his nomination for the election for governor of Maguindanao, in the belief that as women they would not be attacked. She died, alongside his two sisters and two female lawyers.
Yesterday Mr Mangudadatu described confronting Mr Ampatuan Jnr at an airport building where he was initially questioned after handing himself in. "When I saw him, I wanted to chew him up, spit him out and stomp on him," he said afterwards.
Not all of the 57 victims were part of the convoy. Felicisimo Khu, a police officer who was supervising the retrieval of bodies on a grassy hilltop in Ampatuan township, said that the gunmen intercepted two other vehicles with six people who happened to be travelling on the same road at the same time — and killed and buried them too.
Yesterday, Mr Mangudadatu went ahead and personally filed his candidacy for election for governor, which is presently held by Mr Ampatuan Jnr's brother. "Only death can stop me from running," he said, holding up his certificate of candidacy. "This symbolises our freedom. I hope this will be the start of our liberation."
He was accompanied by soldiers, a police commander and a senior army general, and by Gilbert Teodoro, who is standing as a candidate in next year's presidential elections as the anointed successor to the incumbent, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
"The massacre brought international shame to the country, which is known to nurture Asia's freest press," said Mr Teodoro. "The eyes of the world are upon us because we just made history by having the biggest number of journalists killed in peace time since the invention of Johannes Gutenberg's printing press in 1439."
The atrocity is a personal embarrassment for Ms Arroyo who has been supported in the past by the Ampatuan family. widely suspected of being behind the killings. "I don't think the President's friendship with the Ampatuans will be severed," her spokeswoman, Lorelei Fajardo, said on Thursday. "Just because they're in this situation doesn't mean we will turn our backs on them."
A local employee of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) worker was shot dead yesterday close to the site of the massacre. Nestor Bulahan was shot in the stomach by an unidentified gunman as he waited at a bus terminal, and died later in hospital. It is unclear whether the attack was related to the massacre four day earlier.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6934599.ece
President Gloria Arroyo declared a national day of mourning and pledged to arrest the perpetrators as police said they were investigating a group loyal to the government.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/nov/27/press-freedom-philippines
