Two American human rights groups claimed today that Filipino soldiers may be linked to the killings of five human rights lawyers and the harassment of a dozen others since last year. A report by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and Asia Watch, both New York-based groups, claimed President Corazon Aquino's government ``has failed to respond adequately'' to attacks on human rights lawyers and that victims of abuses were afraid to seek legal redress. The 28-page report cited the unsolved killings of five human rights lawyers, who were slain in separate incidents from October 1987 until last June. It said evidence existed that the military or military-backed anti-Communist vigilante groups may have been involved in the killings. The report by the two groups said more than a dozen other lawyers have been subjected to threats, harassment and surveillance since 1987. It urged the Aquino government to ``publicly and unambiguously express its commitment to the protection of human rights lawyers and its condemnation of the killings, threats and harassment.'' ``Victims of abuses are often afraid to pursue legal redress,'' said the report, written by Norman Dorsen, professor of law at New York University, and Nadine Strossen, visiting professor of law at New York Law School. ``Those who do, often discover that those responsible are shielded from prosecution by the local military detachment,'' the report said. There was no comment from the government on the charges. Mrs. Aquino has vowed to curb human rights abuses. But last month, she said it was unfair to blame the entire military establishment for abuses by a few of its members. The report was released two days after the London-based Amnesty International human rights organization claimed more than 100 leftists, trade unionists and social activists were slain in the Philippines last year because of alleged links to Communist rebels. Human rights groups here claim such abuses are continuing despite Mrs. Aquino's pledge to protect civil liberties after the 1986 ouster of President Ferdinand Marcos. During a human rights seminar here Thursday, military officials and civil rights workers clashed over the government's plans to deploy a new civilian militia, the Citizens' Armed Forces Geographical Unit, to help battle the rebels. Undersecretary of Defense Eduardo Ermita said the 160,000-member armed forces alone could not contend with the 25,000-strong New People's Army, Moslem insurgents and right-wing extremists. He said members of the new force would be carefully screened and would face court-martial for any human rights abuses. But Mariss Diokno, a prominent human rights activist, said the new force was ``anti-democratic'' and a step toward militarization that social activists hoped would be reversed following Marcos' ouster.
