The posting today Nov. 17 on the Mindanao People's Caucus facebook page by Father Eduardo Vasquez Jr., of his experiences as the Catholic parish priest in Datu Piang, Maguindanao, Philippines, provides horrifying details regarding some of the worst realities of the recent war in Mindanao, including: 1) Who really started it; 2) Gun running by Philippine military; 3) torture and killing of civilians; 4) ghost units of the Philippine military 5) death of children and others in IDP centers; 6) stealing of relief supplies.
1) People always want to know who "started it." The fighting after the failed signing of the MOA-AD (agreement on thorniest issue of ancestral domain) was initiated NOT by the MILF (muslim fighters), as is reported in the media, but by the goverment paramilitary CVOs (civilian volunteer organization). Father Vasquez reports that on Aug. 8, 2008, "The reason for evacuating was the news that circulated through text messages that the military would make an offensive to the MILF camps in Pikit. This news coincided with the arrival of military troops with heavy armaments in Pikit that day....At around 5:00 PM, firing between the Civilian Volunteer Organizations (CVOs) and the MILF troops started in Barangays Kolambugan and Tapodoc....The tension in Pikit heightened when the AFP started the mortar shelling to the MILF camp. Explosion of mortars could be heard all over Poblacion, on Sunday of August 10, 2008." This modus operandi was confirmed by other reports from "inside," that the CVO's would breach the ceasefire line, drawing fire from the MILF, they would engage each other, then regular army units would come in to reinforce the CVOs, leading to full-scale MILF-army confrontation. These inside reports further indicated that the MILF fell-back from their position and the army occupied their village, often burning and looting houses in the process.
2) Gun running by the Philippine military and paramilitaries, "July 2009 I received a phone call from an MILF Commander...in Datu Piang. He requested me to visit his place and to facilitate on how the war between his men and the 54th IB of the Philippine Army could be stopped. When I met him, I could sense that he really wanted to end the war. He was also afraid to die. He wanted already to live peacefully.... But what bothered me when I left the place was the revelation that he made about the sources of their bullets and other armaments. He attested that the bullets that they use are also coming from the Armed Forces of the Philippines. What he said was also confirmed by MILF Commander "jojo" (not his real name), the operation commander of the 105th base command.... When someone asked him how they buy bullets from the military, he said that 'the CVOs are the ones making the deal'.... War is indeed a business and unless this business is cut off, many civilians will continue to be displaced."
3) The disappearance, torture and killing of unarmed civilians, "The MILF attack that took place that day resulted to the death of Lucio (72) and Isidra Fano (63) who were husband and wife. Based on the testimony of their son-and-law, Lucio was shot while he was harvesting corn. Isidra however was inside their house when shot by another armed-man. Dulcisimo (37) who was their son was taken by the armed troops. We recovered his body after three days. It was already on the state of decomposition. Part of his intestine went out from his side. One of his eyes was gone. Probably he was tortured."
4) Operation of "ghost units" of the Philippine military involved in breaking the of law of war (human rights violations), "On September 6, 2009 just right after I celebrated Mass in Datu Piang a woman named Lindongan Husain who is around 60 years old approached me and asked me to help her find her 23-year old son who was arrested by the military last May 7, 2009 at around 8:00 AM. The name of her son is Kaharudin. According to the mother, Kaharudin was gardening in their backyard in Barangay Pagatin, Datu Saudi when some government soldiers picked him up and asked him to ride in the military truck. She wanted to go with her son but the soldiers did not permit her. The name clothes and the name of the company of the soldiers were covered with masking tape so that she was not able to identify them. Some people who saw the actual arrest of Kaharudin told me that some companions of the military were wearing bonnets. They were the ones who seemed to be identifying the people who were to be arrested.Kaharudin is the only son and the only person who supports his mother Lindongan."
"Meriam Aman the wife of Said Aman was so uneasy when I found her in Barangay Makir, Dato Odin Sinsuat on September 9, 2009. She and her 6 children were originally residing in Barangay Pagatin, Datu Saudi (35 years old) but decided to transfer when her husband Said was killed. Said was also arrested by the military in the morning of May 7, 2009. His body was found three days later at the Rio Grande de Mindanao in Barangay Duaminanga, Datu Piang. His wife and his six children are now living miserably in Barangay Makir Evacuation Center."
5) Death of children and other civilians in IDP centers, he lists, by number, several heart wrenching stories, "#3. Mohaymin Dangandangan - She was only 10-days old when he died in Damabalas Evacuation Center. She suffered from diarrhea. Her mother unable to lactate, fed her with any milk she could afford. She was never brought to the hospital when she got sick. When I met her parents she was already buried under the ground for one day. #4. Baby Boy Kureg - He was brought to the Bahay Kalinga on June 18, 2009. He suffered from pneumonia and severe difficulty in breathing. His whole body was swollen because of severe infections. I found out that his mother had been feeding him with “simbug” – a mixture of water and brown sugar and the worst was that, the water was coming from a dirty well not suitable for drinking. Baby Kureg died on June 20, 2009 in Cotabato Regional Medical Center."
6) Stealing relief food intended for IDP's, he lists 4 methods utilized by government officials, including the selling of food ration tickets, local governments confiscating rice sacks as their 'share', a mayor redirecting relief goods to their friends/constituents, and indiscriminate ticket throwing.
Showing posts with label Philippines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philippines. Show all posts
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Recommendations from the fields of Mindanao
Since 9-11, the U.S. has been poviding $30 million in military assistance annually as part of a counter-terror operation in the Philippines. This assistance is being subsumed in the larger civil war between Bangsamoror freedom fighters and the Philippine government. Unfortunately, this puts the U.S. on the side of one of the most corrupt governments in Asia, where impunity is widespread.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty international, Human Rights watch and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions have all conducted and issued extensive reports on this in the past several years. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks the Philippines 6th in it's world impunity index, worse than Mexico, Russia and Afghanistan. Filipino humanitarian workers in Mindanao recently found over 200 houses burned by the Philippine army, which is directly supported by American tax dollars. Peacebuilders field workers have witnessed the deployment in central Mindanao of “ghost units” of the Philippine military, operating without insignia or identification.
To top it off, Melissa Roxas, an American woman from California volunteering as a community health outreach worker, was recently abducted, tortured and accused of being a communist. Evidence suggests that this was carried out by agents of the Philippine military. This has been widely reported in Philippine news, but not in the U.S.
These are just several examples of the many human rights problems in the Philippines. The government and military here have virtually no accountability. Rarely is there prosecution and conviction of perpetrators, if even an effective investigation.
Currently, only $2 million of the 30 million U.S. military aid is contingent on human rights conditions. We are at an important juncture as the government and Muslim sides in Mindanao have declared a truce in the fighting and the country heads into it's "election season" for the 2010 presidential elections. The U.S. government needs to make it clear that fighting terror does not mean condoning rampant impunity and disregard for basic human rights.
Therefore, we at Peacebuilders Community are remmending the following policy initiatives:
1) Immediate suspension of U.S. military aid to the Philippines pending an inquiry into counter-insurgency military operations, human rights and impunity, especially the case of American citizen Melissa Roxas.
2) Creation of a multi-sectoral task force to visit the Philippines to investigate the human rights situation and make recommendations for further policy changes.
3) Re-positioning of U.S. policy and program initiatives related to the civil war in Mindanao as a more neutral arbiter.
4) Conven an international advisory group of peace "elders," especially from the Muslim nations, to help shepherd the peace process forward for both the Muslim and Communist insurgency and to submit recommendations for a long term transitional/restorative justice process (aka, truth & reconciliation commission).
5) The creation of a UN peacekeeping force to intervene in Mindanao.
6) Creation of an environmental report card/sign posts for appropriate development so that the root causes of conflict are addressed in an ecological way.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty international, Human Rights watch and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions have all conducted and issued extensive reports on this in the past several years. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks the Philippines 6th in it's world impunity index, worse than Mexico, Russia and Afghanistan. Filipino humanitarian workers in Mindanao recently found over 200 houses burned by the Philippine army, which is directly supported by American tax dollars. Peacebuilders field workers have witnessed the deployment in central Mindanao of “ghost units” of the Philippine military, operating without insignia or identification.
To top it off, Melissa Roxas, an American woman from California volunteering as a community health outreach worker, was recently abducted, tortured and accused of being a communist. Evidence suggests that this was carried out by agents of the Philippine military. This has been widely reported in Philippine news, but not in the U.S.
These are just several examples of the many human rights problems in the Philippines. The government and military here have virtually no accountability. Rarely is there prosecution and conviction of perpetrators, if even an effective investigation.
Currently, only $2 million of the 30 million U.S. military aid is contingent on human rights conditions. We are at an important juncture as the government and Muslim sides in Mindanao have declared a truce in the fighting and the country heads into it's "election season" for the 2010 presidential elections. The U.S. government needs to make it clear that fighting terror does not mean condoning rampant impunity and disregard for basic human rights.
Therefore, we at Peacebuilders Community are remmending the following policy initiatives:
1) Immediate suspension of U.S. military aid to the Philippines pending an inquiry into counter-insurgency military operations, human rights and impunity, especially the case of American citizen Melissa Roxas.
2) Creation of a multi-sectoral task force to visit the Philippines to investigate the human rights situation and make recommendations for further policy changes.
3) Re-positioning of U.S. policy and program initiatives related to the civil war in Mindanao as a more neutral arbiter.
4) Conven an international advisory group of peace "elders," especially from the Muslim nations, to help shepherd the peace process forward for both the Muslim and Communist insurgency and to submit recommendations for a long term transitional/restorative justice process (aka, truth & reconciliation commission).
5) The creation of a UN peacekeeping force to intervene in Mindanao.
6) Creation of an environmental report card/sign posts for appropriate development so that the root causes of conflict are addressed in an ecological way.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Where in the world is Melissa Roxas
At home in Los Angeles, California. Recovering after her weekend press conference detailing her trauma incurred here in the Philippines.
Melissa, an American community health volunteer in the northern Philippines, was kidnapped last month, tortured and released, she alleges, by agents of the Philippine military.
I note this NOT because it's remarkable. There has been a perpetual, and perpetually violent, counterinsurgency war of attrition going on in the shadows of Philippine society. It has been waging at least since the era of Marcos. Left leaning civil society groups allege hundreds of tortured, killings and disappearances at the hands of government agents and security services. The government insists these are just propaganda of the communist party of the Philippines and points to individuals killed in acts of "revolutionary justice" by the armed wing of the communist party, the New People's Army.
Yet this is the first time an American citizen has been dragged into it in many a year. What is amazing to me is the lack of coverage. LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Denver Post (my hometown paper) - searches by her name come up with zilch. Nadie. None. Aside from Denver, all major cities with significant Filipino populations. The New York times had a story soon after she was released.
Wait a minute, this is an American citizen (hate to say it, but the torture of an American has more value than a non-American), and it seems to reach a new low point for the Philippine human rights situation.
And the media silence is deafening.
Melissa, an American community health volunteer in the northern Philippines, was kidnapped last month, tortured and released, she alleges, by agents of the Philippine military.
I note this NOT because it's remarkable. There has been a perpetual, and perpetually violent, counterinsurgency war of attrition going on in the shadows of Philippine society. It has been waging at least since the era of Marcos. Left leaning civil society groups allege hundreds of tortured, killings and disappearances at the hands of government agents and security services. The government insists these are just propaganda of the communist party of the Philippines and points to individuals killed in acts of "revolutionary justice" by the armed wing of the communist party, the New People's Army.
Yet this is the first time an American citizen has been dragged into it in many a year. What is amazing to me is the lack of coverage. LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Denver Post (my hometown paper) - searches by her name come up with zilch. Nadie. None. Aside from Denver, all major cities with significant Filipino populations. The New York times had a story soon after she was released.
Wait a minute, this is an American citizen (hate to say it, but the torture of an American has more value than a non-American), and it seems to reach a new low point for the Philippine human rights situation.
And the media silence is deafening.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Crossing the Upian at flood stage
We awoke at 3 am to catch the bus from downtown Davao City, Philippines to the whistle stop at Marahan, an hour and half up the mountains, though still technically within city limits. Marahan does not have much to boast, aside from one two story building painted green. From there we rented dirt bikes drivers, with our stuff tied in sacks on the side, to fly 30 minutes down a rocky dirt road to Maluan village and the Uppian River, our trail head. We then forded the river with the sacks tied onto a horse, (though in Colorado we would call it a pony), as well as a water buffalo. Then began an hour hike straight up the next hill to the village of Malikongkong.
The point of this whole endeavor was to attend a community meeting of the Matigsalug tribe, who had been mysteriously chosen by the local oligarchs down in the city proper to have a new city jail built in their ancestral territory. While it is beyond me as to how the city chose this exact location, there seems to be a propensity (which translates across cultures) to try and isolate and hide those who have been judged as threats to society. Never mind that they might become less threatening if they were close enough to have their children, brothers, sisters, parents, or anyone for that matter, come visit them.
In exchange for enticing a third of the families in Malikongkong to donate their land to the project, the city government agreed to “terms and conditions.” These included the city constructing a “model tribal village” including water, electricity and homes with cement floors - for the thirty-one families only. Apparently the carrots (basic services) dangled to split the community were luxuries the rest of the community would have to somehow acquire on their own. Yet as we came to the top of the hill where the elementary school framed the Malikongkong village green, there was a model tribal village standing in front of me. It’s their current village, alive, simple, beautiful.
We were soon to discover further irony as the city was simultaneously supporting an environmental disaster preparedness project in Malikongkong. The environmental surveyor for that project was presenting his results at the community meeting. He had completed surveys of the area, which was classified as city watershed, and found much of the land, including the part donated for the jail, was at a “critical” risk for landslides due to deforestation. (Somehow this had been missed when the city issued an “environmental clearance certificate” for the jail site.) Meanwhile just last week, in a not so distant community, a landslide had washed away virtually an entire mountain. The slide covered a village killing 31 residents, though rescued teams were still digging through the mud to get a final count.
My job, as a peace worker, would be to try and work with the community leaders of Malikongkong to see if they could re-unite themselves and advocate for their common interests as a single Matigsalug indigenous community, including their right not to be washed down into Davao City proper. As the community meeting ended and we had lunch of sardines and rice wrapped in banana leaves, clouds began to move across the ridges and valleys. I hurriedly finished my meal and followed my guide Sam down the trail, hoping to make the Upian crossing before the rain brought it to flood stage. We didn’t have a chance, minutes into our hike, it began pouring and Sam took off his flip flops to slide barefoot down the creek that had been the path on my hike up. Just before reaching the river, two Matigsalog men came riding up the trail on water buffalo, yelling through the downpour that the river was already too high. As we arrived, the rain subsided but the river continued raging in a muddy brown funk.
It was mid afternoon, Sam said it could take hours for the water to subside. I suggested maybe we just return up the muddy trail to Malikongkong. My wife would be left at home overnight with three small children, but there seemed no other way. Some of the residents of Maluan village on the other side came out to yell and wave us away from the rapids, their gesticulations indicating it might be possible to ford further up the river. We tried walking round the bank, but a cascading tributary feeding the Upian was literally rolling large rocks down it’s riverbed in defiance.
We returned to the Upian to see a man coming toward us along the river bank. He had somehow crossed at the shallower ford up the river. With his help we made it to the ford where the Upian current was still flowing fast. Another man came swimming around the bend and pulled himself out, with a rope in hand. The first didn’t wait for it to be tied across, without a word, he took my back pack, and, like the fox with the gingerbread man on his nose, waded out deeper and deeper til it was just his head above water, arms holding the back pack aloft. He seemed to be swimming, but made it across. I, then Sam my guide, followed his exact route. It was chest high on me, just shallow enough not to get swept away if Ileaned into it, holding the rope.
Laughing and commenting about the whole event, a small crowd had gathered on the other side to see the spectacle of a white guy pulling his muddy self out of the water. The dirt and sand that was once their land was now caked into my shoes and pants. Whatever the path ahead for the Matigsalug of Davao’s valleys and hills, they would face it with a smile and self sacrifice. I just hope their dreams of fertile forests prevail before the rains wash them away in a nightmare mud.
The point of this whole endeavor was to attend a community meeting of the Matigsalug tribe, who had been mysteriously chosen by the local oligarchs down in the city proper to have a new city jail built in their ancestral territory. While it is beyond me as to how the city chose this exact location, there seems to be a propensity (which translates across cultures) to try and isolate and hide those who have been judged as threats to society. Never mind that they might become less threatening if they were close enough to have their children, brothers, sisters, parents, or anyone for that matter, come visit them.
In exchange for enticing a third of the families in Malikongkong to donate their land to the project, the city government agreed to “terms and conditions.” These included the city constructing a “model tribal village” including water, electricity and homes with cement floors - for the thirty-one families only. Apparently the carrots (basic services) dangled to split the community were luxuries the rest of the community would have to somehow acquire on their own. Yet as we came to the top of the hill where the elementary school framed the Malikongkong village green, there was a model tribal village standing in front of me. It’s their current village, alive, simple, beautiful.
We were soon to discover further irony as the city was simultaneously supporting an environmental disaster preparedness project in Malikongkong. The environmental surveyor for that project was presenting his results at the community meeting. He had completed surveys of the area, which was classified as city watershed, and found much of the land, including the part donated for the jail, was at a “critical” risk for landslides due to deforestation. (Somehow this had been missed when the city issued an “environmental clearance certificate” for the jail site.) Meanwhile just last week, in a not so distant community, a landslide had washed away virtually an entire mountain. The slide covered a village killing 31 residents, though rescued teams were still digging through the mud to get a final count.
My job, as a peace worker, would be to try and work with the community leaders of Malikongkong to see if they could re-unite themselves and advocate for their common interests as a single Matigsalug indigenous community, including their right not to be washed down into Davao City proper. As the community meeting ended and we had lunch of sardines and rice wrapped in banana leaves, clouds began to move across the ridges and valleys. I hurriedly finished my meal and followed my guide Sam down the trail, hoping to make the Upian crossing before the rain brought it to flood stage. We didn’t have a chance, minutes into our hike, it began pouring and Sam took off his flip flops to slide barefoot down the creek that had been the path on my hike up. Just before reaching the river, two Matigsalog men came riding up the trail on water buffalo, yelling through the downpour that the river was already too high. As we arrived, the rain subsided but the river continued raging in a muddy brown funk.
It was mid afternoon, Sam said it could take hours for the water to subside. I suggested maybe we just return up the muddy trail to Malikongkong. My wife would be left at home overnight with three small children, but there seemed no other way. Some of the residents of Maluan village on the other side came out to yell and wave us away from the rapids, their gesticulations indicating it might be possible to ford further up the river. We tried walking round the bank, but a cascading tributary feeding the Upian was literally rolling large rocks down it’s riverbed in defiance.
We returned to the Upian to see a man coming toward us along the river bank. He had somehow crossed at the shallower ford up the river. With his help we made it to the ford where the Upian current was still flowing fast. Another man came swimming around the bend and pulled himself out, with a rope in hand. The first didn’t wait for it to be tied across, without a word, he took my back pack, and, like the fox with the gingerbread man on his nose, waded out deeper and deeper til it was just his head above water, arms holding the back pack aloft. He seemed to be swimming, but made it across. I, then Sam my guide, followed his exact route. It was chest high on me, just shallow enough not to get swept away if Ileaned into it, holding the rope.
Laughing and commenting about the whole event, a small crowd had gathered on the other side to see the spectacle of a white guy pulling his muddy self out of the water. The dirt and sand that was once their land was now caked into my shoes and pants. Whatever the path ahead for the Matigsalug of Davao’s valleys and hills, they would face it with a smile and self sacrifice. I just hope their dreams of fertile forests prevail before the rains wash them away in a nightmare mud.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Philippines takes first place in number of new internal refugees (IDPs)
While a number of high profile conflicts such as in Sudan and Sri Lanka continue to generate global media interest, what is happening here in the Southern Philippines remains relatively under-reported, as I highlighted last month on this blog in "Silencing 100,000 Voices". Below is a statement by the Mindanao People's Caucus, an organization I work with, calling attention to this and to the human cost of this war....
Mindanao Peoples Caucus Statement
May 11, 2009
Philippines with the Highest Number of new IDPs in the World:
A Wake Up Call for the Peace Process!
TWO years back, the Philippines has been named one of the most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International. In 2008, the Philippines hit a new world record and like the most corrupt record, this new record brings only shame and international concern. According to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), a Geneva-based leading international body monitoring conflict-induced internal displacement, the Philippines ranked first in the number of IDPs worldwide by registering 600,000 evacuees in 2008. This figure is higher than that of Sudan (550,000) -- a country similarly long beset by internal armed conflict.
The 600,000 IDPs in Mindanao topped that of Kenya (500,000), Democratic Republic of Congo (at least 400,000), Iraq (360,000), Pakistan (over 310,000), Somalia (300,000), Colombia (270,000), Sri Lanka (230,000) and India (over 220,000).
This comes as a surprise detour for the Philippines which was well into track one of the peace process, having a viable political formula already determined at the negotiating table and a ceasefire which had effectively silenced most of the guns in Mindanao for the last five years. The more than 600,000 internally displaced persons or "bakwits" in Mindanao is a concrete testimony of the human costs of suffering that armed conflict brings especially among the civilian population.
The skirmishes since August 2008 claimed 276 deaths and 138 injuries, said the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC). But the number of civilian casualties is rising. In Datu Piang alone, 168 civilians died in the crossfire between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), according to the recent record of Bantay Ceasefire.
It has been over nine months since the government launched its military operations against three MILF field commanders and so far, the human costs of such tactical operations, has only succeeded in terrorizing the lives, homes, properties, livelihood and security of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The most horrifying of which was the tragedy that befell the Mandi family. As they traversed a treacherous river in Datu Piang last September 2008 in order to escape from the fighting, they were fired upon by a fighter plane. Six children died instantaneously during the attack, including a pregnant mother and an old man. No one was held responsible for wiping out the entire Mandi family.
Last March 1, two teenagers in Guindulungan, Maguindanao were electrocuted by a live barbed wire serving as a perimeter fence of the detachment of the 46th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army based in Barangay Macasampen, Guindulungan. Based on the Bantay Ceasefire field report, the two victims, named Mentato Mamalinta, 15, and Mohammad Bayan, 14, were riding a cow on their way back to the Tambunan Evacuation Center when the animal set foot on the a barbed wire which was tapped to the service line of the Maguindanao Electric Cooperative. The two victims fell on the same live wire when the animal felt the electric shock.
Having the highest number of IDPs in the world is not something to be proud of. It is a cause of international embarrassment and only shows our collective failure to resolve this raging armed conflict in Mindanao. MPC calls on the government and the MILF to immediately resume the peace talks and bring the negotiation towards a viable political settlement. We urge the government and the MILF to reactivate ceasefire mechanisms following the earlier call of the EU Parliament to expand the mandate of the International Monitoring Team.
MPC also supports the plan of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to establish an independent human rights commission in Mindanao. The independent commission will be of great value in protecting the rights of the ordinary people especially the internally displaced persons who are absorbing the brunt of war and violence caused by this renewed fighting in Mindanao.
It is time to push for the resumption of the peace talks and discuss outstanding issues on the ancestral domain right at the negotiating table. It is time to bring back the International Team and the Joint Ceasefire Committee to enforce and fully implement the ceasefire agreement, it is time to bring those thousands of evacuees back to their homes.
Mindanao Peoples Caucus Statement
May 11, 2009
Philippines with the Highest Number of new IDPs in the World:
A Wake Up Call for the Peace Process!
TWO years back, the Philippines has been named one of the most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International. In 2008, the Philippines hit a new world record and like the most corrupt record, this new record brings only shame and international concern. According to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), a Geneva-based leading international body monitoring conflict-induced internal displacement, the Philippines ranked first in the number of IDPs worldwide by registering 600,000 evacuees in 2008. This figure is higher than that of Sudan (550,000) -- a country similarly long beset by internal armed conflict.
The 600,000 IDPs in Mindanao topped that of Kenya (500,000), Democratic Republic of Congo (at least 400,000), Iraq (360,000), Pakistan (over 310,000), Somalia (300,000), Colombia (270,000), Sri Lanka (230,000) and India (over 220,000).
This comes as a surprise detour for the Philippines which was well into track one of the peace process, having a viable political formula already determined at the negotiating table and a ceasefire which had effectively silenced most of the guns in Mindanao for the last five years. The more than 600,000 internally displaced persons or "bakwits" in Mindanao is a concrete testimony of the human costs of suffering that armed conflict brings especially among the civilian population.
The skirmishes since August 2008 claimed 276 deaths and 138 injuries, said the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC). But the number of civilian casualties is rising. In Datu Piang alone, 168 civilians died in the crossfire between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), according to the recent record of Bantay Ceasefire.
It has been over nine months since the government launched its military operations against three MILF field commanders and so far, the human costs of such tactical operations, has only succeeded in terrorizing the lives, homes, properties, livelihood and security of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The most horrifying of which was the tragedy that befell the Mandi family. As they traversed a treacherous river in Datu Piang last September 2008 in order to escape from the fighting, they were fired upon by a fighter plane. Six children died instantaneously during the attack, including a pregnant mother and an old man. No one was held responsible for wiping out the entire Mandi family.
Last March 1, two teenagers in Guindulungan, Maguindanao were electrocuted by a live barbed wire serving as a perimeter fence of the detachment of the 46th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army based in Barangay Macasampen, Guindulungan. Based on the Bantay Ceasefire field report, the two victims, named Mentato Mamalinta, 15, and Mohammad Bayan, 14, were riding a cow on their way back to the Tambunan Evacuation Center when the animal set foot on the a barbed wire which was tapped to the service line of the Maguindanao Electric Cooperative. The two victims fell on the same live wire when the animal felt the electric shock.
Having the highest number of IDPs in the world is not something to be proud of. It is a cause of international embarrassment and only shows our collective failure to resolve this raging armed conflict in Mindanao. MPC calls on the government and the MILF to immediately resume the peace talks and bring the negotiation towards a viable political settlement. We urge the government and the MILF to reactivate ceasefire mechanisms following the earlier call of the EU Parliament to expand the mandate of the International Monitoring Team.
MPC also supports the plan of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to establish an independent human rights commission in Mindanao. The independent commission will be of great value in protecting the rights of the ordinary people especially the internally displaced persons who are absorbing the brunt of war and violence caused by this renewed fighting in Mindanao.
It is time to push for the resumption of the peace talks and discuss outstanding issues on the ancestral domain right at the negotiating table. It is time to bring back the International Team and the Joint Ceasefire Committee to enforce and fully implement the ceasefire agreement, it is time to bring those thousands of evacuees back to their homes.
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