Massacred women may have been raped
Source: Agencies |
December 4, 2009, Friday
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Print Edition
AT least five women among 57 people massacred in an attack on an election convoy in the southern Philippines last week may have been raped, police said yesterday.
The forensic findings from the November 23 carnage, blamed on a powerful clan that has ruled impoverished Maguindanao Province unopposed for years, also indicated that some of the victims were mowed down with a light machine gun and others shot from a distance of only 60 centimeters, said Arturo Cacdac, director of the police crime laboratory.
The convoy was carrying 30 journalists, their staff and the family and supporters of a local politician to file his candidacy for governor of Maguindanao, a position held by the powerful Ampatuan clan.
The politician, Esmael Mangudadatu, sent his wife and relatives to submit his papers after he had received death threats from the Amptuans. He said he thought his female family members would not be harmed.
Impartial probe
Twenty-one of the 57 people slain were women. More than half of those killed were journalists.
The scion of the clan and a town mayor, Andal Ampatuan Jr, turned himself in last week and was charged on Tuesday with multiple counts of murder. His father - the family's patriarch - and six other members also are considered suspects but have not been charged.
The Ampatuans deny involvement in the killings.
Maguindanao's 1,092-strong entire police force has been relieved and will be replaced by personnel from other regions to ensure an impartial investigation of the killings, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said.
Results of police laboratory tests, released yesterday, found traces of semen in five of the 21 slain women, said Cacdac, the lab chief. He called it "presumptive evidence (that) they were raped."
Cacdac said two of the women were married, and their husbands will be asked for DNA samples to rule out the possibility it was their semen found in the tests.
The bodies of all five women had bruises or injuries on their genitals, said Ruby Grace Diangson, head of the police medico-legal office.
Investigation of 15 other bodies revealed no sign of rape. Test results on the remaining female body have not been concluded.
The forensic findings from the November 23 carnage, blamed on a powerful clan that has ruled impoverished Maguindanao Province unopposed for years, also indicated that some of the victims were mowed down with a light machine gun and others shot from a distance of only 60 centimeters, said Arturo Cacdac, director of the police crime laboratory.
The convoy was carrying 30 journalists, their staff and the family and supporters of a local politician to file his candidacy for governor of Maguindanao, a position held by the powerful Ampatuan clan.
The politician, Esmael Mangudadatu, sent his wife and relatives to submit his papers after he had received death threats from the Amptuans. He said he thought his female family members would not be harmed.
Impartial probe
Twenty-one of the 57 people slain were women. More than half of those killed were journalists.
The scion of the clan and a town mayor, Andal Ampatuan Jr, turned himself in last week and was charged on Tuesday with multiple counts of murder. His father - the family's patriarch - and six other members also are considered suspects but have not been charged.
The Ampatuans deny involvement in the killings.
Maguindanao's 1,092-strong entire police force has been relieved and will be replaced by personnel from other regions to ensure an impartial investigation of the killings, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said.
Results of police laboratory tests, released yesterday, found traces of semen in five of the 21 slain women, said Cacdac, the lab chief. He called it "presumptive evidence (that) they were raped."
Cacdac said two of the women were married, and their husbands will be asked for DNA samples to rule out the possibility it was their semen found in the tests.
The bodies of all five women had bruises or injuries on their genitals, said Ruby Grace Diangson, head of the police medico-legal office.
Investigation of 15 other bodies revealed no sign of rape. Test results on the remaining female body have not been concluded.
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