Independent probe: more than 57 killed in Philippine massacre
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An independent probe led by a world leading forensic anthropologist finds that the number of victims in a recent gruesome political-motivated massacre in the Philippines might exceed the official body count of 57.
Deputized by the Philippines' Commission on Human Rights to investigate, Peruvian Jose Pablo Baraybar told reporters on Monday that after a ten-day probe his team is almost sure that there is at least one more victim, a local journalist named Robert Momay, whose body has yet to be accounted for.
Baraybar said an intact partial upper denture, identified by Momay's family as his, was recovered from the uphill graves in Ampatuan town of Maguindanao province where more than 50 bodies of the election-related massacre were earlier found.
But the denture could not fit in any of the three remaining unidentified bodies which were already claimed by four families.
On Nov. 23, a convoy of journalists, lawyers and supporters of a local politician was ambushed at a major road in Maguindanao. They were herded off to a nearby hillside area, shot dead, and buried amass. Police investigators said they have found 57 bodies.
"The event was defined by the bodies recovered and not by the number of alleged victims reported," Baraybar said plenty of things remain "extremely unclear" as the crime scene has been irreversibly damaged by the arrival of "far too many people" at the first stage.
He said the massacre toll could still be higher as evidence shows that there could have been more victims who happened to pass by the massacre site. Their bodies could be buried or hidden at another location.
Baraybar, who served as an expert witness with both the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, said what surprised him most in this case was the perpetrators' boldness and the idea of impunity surrounding this particular case.
Unlike the ordinary cases in which perpetrators try their best to destroy evidence, you feel that while the perpetrators in this case try to cover up but at the same time they also want to show what they have done, Baraybar said.
He said it is quite surprising that so many people were kidnapped from a major highway and so many rounds of rifle shots were filed within the hearing range of local communities and even military detachments.
Authorities have arrested and charged a local mayor -- Andal Ampatuan Jr. -- in court for allegedly ordering the massacre. The Ampatuan clan, controlling at least 16 out of 22 towns in Maguindanao, is a known warlord in the province backed by a full- equipped private army, officials said.
The patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr. and other senior clan members were arrested last Saturday after President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo imposed martial law in the province and moved in thousands of troops to secure the provincial capitol and other Ampatuan strongholds.
Senior cabinet officials earlier said the martial law was declared because none of the judges and prosecutors in and around Maguindanao would issue search and arrest warrants against the Ampatuans while more than 2,000 para-military soldiers loyal to the family were massing up across the province, attempting to rebel against government troops taking control of the region.
Commission on Human Rights Chairwoman Leila de Lima said after the massacre drew international attention local residents in Maguindanao told her that similar mass killings occurred in the past.
De Lima said her commission would investigate into the yet-to- verify claim that the Ampatuans are behind the missing of at least 200 people in the province. De Lima said she was told that the victims were buried in other mass graves and there will be witnesses who can pinpoint the location given the right opportunities.
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