After 10 days investigating what is considered the worst case of election–related violence in Philippine history, José Pablo Baraybar, the Executive Director of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF), told reporters today in Manilla that the total number of victims could be more than the 57 initially reported. According to Baraybar, investigators recovered a partial denture from a mass grave near the massacre site that did not fit any of the remaining unidentified bodies. “In other words,” he said, “we still have a 58th victim missing.” Baraybar added that a vehicle belonging to Jephon Cadagdagon, a local businessman, was discovered buried in one of the gravesites. The car was penetrated by multiple “perforations”, though only Mr. Cadagdagon’s body was found in the vehicle. “We raise the question as to whether he was traveling indeed alone or may have been taking passengers on his way through the area,” Baraybar said, in which case the total number of victims would be much higher The massacre in the country’s Manguindadao province took place on November 23rd when 100 armed men surrounded members from the Mangudadatu clan as they attempted to register the candidacy of one of their leaders for next year’s elections. The assailants led the caravan from the highway to a nearby hillside where they attacked the victims with M-16s and machetes. After 10 days at the head of the investigation, Baraybar confessed that he is still perplexed by the “veil of impunity that surrounds this case.” Of all the massacres he has investigated, he admitted that this was the first one in which the perpetrators tried to cover up the crime yet send a message at the same time. “There’s a combination of trying to hide [the crime] with the graves and trying to state that ‘I did that’,” Baraybar said. Philippine police have arrested senior members of the Ampatuan clan as the principal suspects in the massacre. The Amputuans, a rival clan that has often competed with the Mangudadatus for political control of the region, have denied the charges against them.





09 dic 2009
Posted by epafperu 


