This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com).
Vol. VI, No. 22, July
9-15, 2006
Fresh fighting between government troops and Moro rebels erupted anew in the Maguindanao province of Mindanao, after a bomb blast meant for a local official killed seven persons. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front said that the renewed clashes could have been prevented had the military taken control of militiamen who were suspected to be the instigators.
BY JHONG DELA
CRUZ
Bulatlat
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) says the government could be again moving towards “militarism in Mindanao.”
Fresh fighting between government troops and Moro rebels had erupted anew in Maguindanao on June 28, following a bomb blast which killed seven persons. The MILF said the renewed clashes could have been prevented had the military taken control of militiamen, who were suspected to be the instigators. Instead, government sent more troops to reinforce the para-military forces against the Moro rebels.
Maguindanao, an MILF-influenced province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is an embattled province serving as lair for Civilian Volunteers Organization and the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit who in turn, serve politicians in the province.
The June 28 clashes was sparked by a June 23 bomb blast in Sharif Aguak town. The bomb targeted Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan, but instead killed seven persons including Cajelo Datumanong, a nephew of 1st district Rep. Simeon Datumanong.
The local government unit was quick to point to MILF as the plotter.
The week-long sporadic fire fighting in at least five towns of Maguindanao, Sharif Aguak, Mamasapanu, Datu Unsay Ampatuan and Datu Saudi Ampatuan had displaced 4,135 displaced families, says a report of the government’s social welfare department.
Mohagher Iqbal, chief of MILF’s peace panel told Bulatlat, “Even without preliminary investigation the government has already pointed to the MILF as behind (the blast).” He pointed out that even before the bombing, fighting were often between MILF combatants, CAFGU or the CVO and military, “because of the deep-seated oppression against the broad masses of the people there.”
Iqbal said the town capital and at least five other adjoining towns were rife with summary killings, land confiscations and other violations that perpetuate armed rebellion.
But even before the renewed fighting, injustices have gripped the Moro people who had been caught in the crossfire between home-grown MILF combatants and the army and its allied forces.
Grassroots oppression
“Summary killings, land confiscations, and other human excesses are numerous, and the people have no way to get justice, so they armed themselves,” he said.
The fighting begun on June 28 with only CAFGUs and CVOs involved in clashes against the MILF. But on Saturday July 1, army soldiers belonging to the 57th and 64th Infantry Battalions joined the fighting.
Worse, army commanders and members of the CAFGUs have ignored the call of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) to forego with their June 28 assault and cease fire.
This also prompted the IMT-led joint ceasefire monitoring center (JMCC) in Guindolongan, and the Joint Monitoring Action Team (JMAT) in Tapikan, Sharif Aguak to suspend their operation Saturday.
Taking initiative
On July 3, the MILF has proposed ways to cut off the fighting reiterating four points:
Iqbal said the proposal was seen to prevent a prolonged war that only resulted to casualties on both sides.
“We know most of those CAFGUs and CVOs on the side of the government do not want to fight us; they are not our enemies; they are as oppressed and forced to fight us,” he said adding:
“Many of them are our relatives, friends or neighbors. Aside from the usual mechanism to address violation of the ceasefire through the ceasefire committees and IMT, we have a dialogue with the elders of the Ampatuans to end the war.”
Brief peace reigned on July 6, but the fighting already left three dead and 10 wounded on the side of MILF, while eight perished and many were wounded among government troops.
The MILF peace panel head said that the fighting could have ended soon should the AFP had taken control of the CAFGUs and CVOs, who for their part, insisted, have no operational control over these paramilitary forces.
At the brink of war
The clashes took their toll on
Tuesday, when the AFP sent tanks to the frontlines of Maguindanao, directly
aiding CAFGU and CVO fighting the MILF.
This could have led to a full-blown war in Mindanao, shattering the three-year old peace talks between the government and the MILF, he said.
MILF maintained that the primacy of the peace process still holds and that it is avoiding the escalation of the skirmishes. The fighting nonetheless, “eroded much of the goodwill between government and MILF negotiators earned during years of interaction in the negotiating table,” it said in a statement.
Malacañang officials for their part, simply dismissed the fresh skirmish between government troops and MILF forces as “isolated case.”
In a statement on July 3, Sec. Ignacio Bunye said the fighting “has not dented the overall spirit of the peace process.” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sought the assistance from the coordinating committee on the cessation of hostilities and the IMT, to restore peace and order in affected areas.
As to whether the government still holds the primacy of peace, Iqbal said, “Only the Arroyo administration can determine that, but signs are clear on the ground that the government is gearing towards militarism in Mindanao.”
Talking peace
The MILF is awaiting the government’s counter-proposal on territory to proceed with the peace talks.
Iqbal said, “The government has not responded positively or negatively to our proposal even after more than two months since our meeting in Kuala Lumpur.”
The latest fighting, however, said Iqbal is a bad development as it only shows that “the Arroyo administration is steadily shifting its policy from peace to war policy in Mindanao.”
He said the parties would not be able to sign a peace accord in time of the observance of Ramadan in September because for now, they are discussing the finer points on the issue of ancestral domain.
For his part, Ren Jalaluddin Ropeta, vice-chairperson of the Moro-Christian Peoples Alliance (MCPA), saw the fresh fighting as reflective of the “feeble” ground on which the GRP- MILF peace negotiations is founded.
Ropeta expressed fears that the conflict in Maguindanao will ultimately jeopardize the GRP-MILF peace negotiations. He noted that displacement in the last five years was five to six times, a vicious cycle of war and ceasefire that the Arroyo government had so far offered the Moro people.
Data gathered by MCPA showed an estimated number of displaced persons in Mindanao at 600,000 under Arroyo’s term. This figure sums up the number of internally displaced persons from the most devastating all-out-wars in Mindanao from the war in Sulu in 2005 which displaced nearly 80,000 persons; the war in Northern and Central Mindanao in 2003 which displaced some 450,000 persons; and the State of Lawlessness in Basilan in 2001 which displaced nearly 80,000. Bulatlat
© 2006 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Media Center
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