This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 28, August 21-27, 2005
“What are U.S. soldiers doing in Mindanao?” and other questions An unfamiliar
landscape is running behind the windows of the van that we are riding. Fields,
villages and unknown locations are taking turns before our eyes. We are
listening greedily to the conversations of our companions in the van, a strange
mixture of Visayan and English words to us, trying to remember names and other
new facts. Bantay
Ceasefire takes the standpoint of the civilians or non-combatants in a situation
of conflict. The European Center for Conflict Prevention, in its "People
Building Peace 2" book, lists the Bantay Ceasefire experience as one of the
successful stories of civil societies in the world engaging their governments
and other actors in order to prevent In the
evening of Aug. 5, we were at the Notre Dame Peace Center in Cotabato City with
about 40 Bantay Ceasefire members. We discussed the situation of the farmer
evacuees of Barangay Timar. Some farmers returned to their farms and stayed
there overnight, taking the risk of staying in an area that has not been
declared "cleared." We talk about the security question for the evacuees– how
will their security be ensured? It is a difficult question: Have you ever chosen
between your personal security and the necessity to be able to feed your family
in the coming months? The area is a
17-km walk to the fields and from the farms to the checkpoint. The day may be
hot, but we got wet after crossing the Ahan river several times. The place looks
so peaceful but a loud noise from overhead ruined our idyll. "Look there,
an airplane! What plane is it? An American one? It has been here since the start
of operations against the Abu Sayyaf!" We later learned that the plane was
likely a P-3 Orion that is used in surveillance operations by the U.S. armed
forces. According to
the residents, the plane has been circling up to 13 hours since three months
ago. We also saw empty plastic bags of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), or meal
rations that are standard issue to U.S. soldiers. It is like a
credo: "To be in the right place at the right time." And thinking about the
plight of the people we met, some phrases of the English writer Rudyard Kipling
come to mind: This
personal essay from two German interns shows the sorry plight of evacuees in
Mindanao who are victims of military operations. The authors are from the German
organization ASA, the European network for development education which organizes
work and study visits for young people from Germany and other European countries
in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Southeast Europe. They are currently in
Mindanao as interns of the Davao-based Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID).
Evgenia Lipski is studying Political Sciences and Law with focus on conflict and
peace studies at the University of Bremen in Germany. Tobias Schuldt is studying
Cultural Anthropology, Science of Religion and Peace and Conflict Studies in
Marburg, Germany. © 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
In Barangay Timar last July 29, we saw a destroyed school, a mosque
without spiritual life and military checkpoints. The village is practically
dead. At the school we met a group of women and children evacuees, all looking
serious. They did not expect any help from us, and our inability to change their
situation depressed us a lot.
By Evgenia Lipski and Tobias Schuldt
Posted by Bulatlat
We are trying not to look helpless in the face of so much background
information. We are not only visitors here. We are part of the Bantay Ceasefire
(Ceasefire Watch), a civil society group that has monitored since 2003 the
ceasefire between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in
Mindanao.
armed conflict.
Realities at Barangay Timar
Since July 1, the Philippine Army has tried to locate and attack members of the
Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) who were reportedly in Maguindanao. Due to continuous
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) operations, the ASG split into small
groups.
In order not to compromise the peace process and the ceasefire, the MILF and the
government agreed to cooperate in the evacuation of more than 1,500 civilians in
the affected barangays in Guindolongan (Barangays or villages Ahan, Upper Muti,
Datal Pandan and Lambayo) and in Talayan (Barangays Pukol, Marader, Timar).
The MILF meanwhile agreed to temporarily move out from two of their camps in
Maguindanao, Camp Badar and Camp Omar, to give government troops the leeway to
operate in their areas. The MILF fighters moved out with the government’s
security guarantee. A search operation, planned first for 72 hours, was extended
several times when the army was unable to locate the ASG.
This cooperation between the government and the MILF cannot be ignored. But what
about the civilian evacuees?
In Barangay Timar last July 29, we saw a destroyed school, a mosque without
spiritual life and military checkpoints. The village is practically dead. At the
school we met a group of women and children evacuees, all looking serious. They
did not expect any help from us, and our inability to change their situation
depressed us a lot.
What does one say to people who have fled their houses and their livestock and
will be far from their fields when harvest season comes? Some of the evacuees
were allowed to enter the area of search operations on the west side of the Ahan
river. But they are only allowed in the area from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., an
arrangement agreed upon by the MILF and AFP. Clearly, they were allowed for only
eight hours, but it already takes the farmers some six hours just to reach their
farms! To do harvest work, two hours is not enough. In an attempt to give some
relief, each family of the evacuees was provided by the government five kilos of
rice which, based on our limited experience, is not enough.
With what we witnessed, we realized that terrorism and criminal elements are
common problems of the government and the MILF and that military operations are
already nothing new. But what about the welfare of the evacuees? If it is a
concern to the Bantay Ceasefire, it must all the more be a concern of the
decision-makers!
Journey to Barangay Ahan
The day after (Aug. 6), we went to Barangay Ahan, a beautiful landscape of
fertile fields of rice, corn and sesame plants which have to be harvested before
they rot or are eaten by wild animals like monkeys and wild pigs during the
night.
At that point, we asked ourselves: What is going on in this area in Maguindanao?
What are American soldiers really doing here?
Not our last mission
Then we started thinking: This is not a time for peace advocates to rest, maybe
there will never be a time to do so. This is the time to be with people and for
the people.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can dream – and not make dreams you master
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim
If you can meet Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you,
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can fill the unforgiving minute,
While sixty seconds worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it
And - which is more – you'll be a Man, my son.
What we went through is not the last Bantay Ceasefire mission and
neither would it be our last. Posted by Bulatlat