Peasant group seeks UN probe of Echanis slay

MANILA, Philippines — Peasant group Anakpawis on Saturday called on the Office of the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) to intervene and look into the murder of its chairperson and peace consultant for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), Randall Echanis.

“We humbly appeal to the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to look into the cold-blooded murder of a peace and peasant advocate who had been always a target of state’s persecution and neutralization,” Anakpawis vice president Ariel Casilao said.

Anakpawis hopes that raising Echanis’ murder to the international community will help them in their quest for justice in holding Echanis’ murderer accountable.

“[His murder] must be raised and established to the international community as a politically motivated and extrajudicial, perpetrated by the murderous Duterte regime,” Casilao said without offering evidence.

Anakpawis said it is raising the issue with the international community, particularly the OHCHR in an attempt to pursue a totally independent investigation.