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Members of the Philippine military have been charged with committing a war crime, after posing for a photo with the body of a suspected communist rebel fighter, who is also the daughter of a member of Congress.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement Thursday that posing with a person’s body for photographs was “an outrage against the dignity of the individual” and was prohibited by the laws of war.
“Committing attacks against personal dignity is a war crime under the Rome Statute, as it applies to people killed according to the ‘Elements of Crimes’ of the International Criminal Court,” said Phil Robertson, HRW Deputy Director for Asia .
“Obviously, the photographs of the body … are a cruel and unnecessary affront to the dignity of that person and violate the laws of war.”
Robertson noted that there are similar provisions on the humane handling of corpses in the human rights agreement signed between the Philippines and the National Democratic Front, the political wing of the communist rebels.
The Philippine military said Jevilyn Campos Cullamat was killed in a “shootout” in a town in Surigao del Sur, a province on the southern island of Mindanao.
The Cullamat family belongs to the Manobo ethnic minority group, which has also been fighting for land rights in Mindanao.
The military identified the 22-year-old, daughter of House member Eufemia Cullamat, as a fighter in the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, now designated a “terrorist group.” following the collapse of talks with the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
His mother previously convicted the military for the murder.
“She is not a thing, she is not a trophy to be displayed for military propaganda. You did not respect the dead, you are also disrespecting the pain of our family, ”he said.
Jevilyn Cullamat, a medical officer and suspected member of the Sandatahang Yunit Pam Propaganda Platoon of the NPA 19 Guerrilla Front Northeast Regional Committee, was killed by the 3rd Special Forces Battalion of the Philippine Army. [cont…] pic.twitter.com/QIfk008CPO
– Gabriela Youth-Bulacan (@GY_BULACAN) November 30, 2020
Outrage over the photo
Outrage erupted when the Philippine state news agency published a photo of the aftermath of the encounter, showing special forces soldiers posing next to Cullamat’s body and some seized weapons.
The photo was later removed, but not before members of the press made copies and took screenshots of the image.
Facebook pages belonging to the Philippine military and media personalities allied with the Duterte administration also posted photos showing the young woman’s body, generating thousands of comments, mostly supportive.
On Wednesday, Delfin Lorenzana, the Philippine Defense Secretary, admitted in a television interview that what the soldiers had done “was wrong.”
“I do not approve of that action. They (the soldiers) shouldn’t have done that, ”Lorenzana told CNN Philippines television.
The rebels of the New People’s Army (NPA) stand their ground during an anniversary celebration in Surigao del Sur [File: Stringer/Reuters]
Duterte’s national security adviser, Hermogenes Esperon Jr., said Cullamat “lost his life for an abandoned cause.”
The military denied allegations that they had desecrated Cullamat’s body and said they took the photos to serve as “substantial evidence” of a “legitimate encounter”.
Independent House of Representatives member Edcel Lagman, however, said Jevilyn was not a fighter but a doctor.
“The propaganda photo with Jevilyn Cullamat, 22, dead, holding a planted firearm says a thousand words about terrorism and the depravity of state agents,” Lagman said.
The Maoist-led rebel group has held intermittent talks with the Philippine government in an attempt to end a half-century of conflict in which tens of thousands of people have died and thousands of others have been forced from their homes.
Following renewed clashes between government forces and rebels in 2017, Duterte signed a proclamation labeling communist fighters as a “terrorist” group, essentially disrupting the peace process.
Since then, he has repeatedly denounced the group and offered a reward for the murder of rebel members. He also sparked outrage when he urged soldiers to shoot rebels in their private parts.
Earlier this year, the government also passed a counterterrorism law, which critics warned could be used against rebels and other critics of the Duterte administration.
Several of Duterte’s top military aides and officers have also begun to link activists and some artists critical of his administration for having ties to communists – a process known as “red label” – alarming rights groups.
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