Human Rights Online Philippines

‘Soldiers shot botanist, companions after thinking they were communist rebels’
By Abigail C. Kwok, InterAksyon.com
December 18, 2012

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said soldiers mistook botanist Leonard Co and his companions as communist rebels when they fired at Co’s group two years ago in Kananga, Leyte.

Although the Army operation was was “legitimate,” the supposed encounter was not, CHR chairperson Etta Rosales said in a phone interview.

“There was no legitimate encounter because the military failed to see the difference between the combatants and non-combatants. These were civilians and soldiers mistook them to be combatants. They shot at these people. That is a violation of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL),” Rosales said.

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