DATU PIANG, Philippines – Sahid Makmud was waiting for a Red Cross truck, which delivered food for hundreds of displaced families in the southern Philippines, when armed men in military uniform took him and two others away.
For almost a week, his pregnant wife and younger brother searched for him without success at army bases in Maguindanao province on the southern island of Mindanao. The army denied any knowledge about Makmud’s disappearance.
Makmud’s body was eventually found on the edge of marshlands not far from his home.
Residents said his killing, and the likely death of the other two men, are part of a growing pattern of human rights abuses in the region. They blame the army for the wrongdoings.
“There were signs that he (Makmud) was tortured to death,” said his brother, Saudi.
The Philippine military has been regularly accused of human rights abuses and disappearances, including in a report by the U.N. special rapporteur on political killings.
The country’s independent human rights body has said the situation improved this year, but residents in the south say not in central Mindanao, the battleground between rogue Muslim rebels and the largely Christian-dominated military.
Read full article at: ABS-CBN News