CNN news 2009-11-24 加文本

cnn 2009-11-24


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Here you to the Philippines now where the government is ramping up security in the south after a gruesome, frankly shocking election-related massacre, gunmen attacked a convoy earlier this morning in Maguindanao, abducting scores of people. A horrifying cnn sued as the kidnappers reportedly raped, tortured and even beheaded members of the group. Family members say the wife of a local candidate for governor, and one of his sister are among the dead. Journalist Maria Ressa has the latest details from the Philippines.

“This is a story about election, violence, and media. Early this morning, about 40 people in the southern Philippines, most of them women, about half of them journalists, set out to file the certificate of candidacy of a politician who wanted to run for provincial governor in Maguindanao in the May 2010 elections. While they went out on the main road, they were surrounded by about 100 armed men, whom the military claims were followers of the rival politician. They were kidnapped, and brought to a mountainous area in Maguindanao. There, the military claims, they were tortured, perhaps raped, perhaps beheaded. The man who wanted to run for governor, now the incumbent vice mayor “Toto” Mangudadatu claimed that precisely he set women in his family, because he was warned that if he went, he would be kidnapped. He pinpointed his political rival on public, on television, a member of the powerful Ampatuan clan, which has long controlled this part of this southern Philippines. Ur, the armed forces of the Philippines confirms that 21 people are dead. They call this an escalation of violence between two rival politicians. Philippine president Macapagal Arroyo has condemned the violence and has called on the military to immediately restore law and order.

Maria Ressa, for cnn, Manila.