Despite the ongoing peace negotiation between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the ceasefire agreement signed by both parties, peace still remains elusive in Mindanao.
BY GERRY ALBERT CORPUZ
Posted by Bulatlat
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Vol. VIII, No. 2, February 10-16, 2008
In its 2007 report on the peace and human rights situation in Southern Philippines, the human rights group Kawagib Moro Human Rights Organization said that the ceasefire failed to stop the government-sponsored state terror against the Moro people.
The agreement on the temporary cessation of hostilities between the GRP and the MILF is overpowered by the combined anti-terror policies of the Philippine and the United States governments which allowed the Philippine military to launch an all-out war and to continuously violate the basic human rights and civil liberties of the Moro people.
At a forum last February 7, MILF peace panel member Mohammad Musib M. Buat said that during the resumption of the GRP-MILF peace talks, the parties involved agreed to honor the GRP-MILF Tripoli Agreement on June 22, 2001 which reverses the all-out war policy of deposed President Joseph Estrada.
Buat said that the peace agreement stipulated the strict observance of international humanitarian laws; respect for internationally recognized human rights agreements; protection of evacuees and displaced persons; and respect for the Bangsamoro people’s fundamental right to determine their own future and political status. “This particular provision in the Tripoli Accord in 2001 on the observance of international humanitarian laws and internationally recognized human rights instruments specifically in times of military operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines have not been strictly observed by the GRP and its security forces.”
Buat said that the use of excessive force and toxic chemicals like century and napalm bombs by the military in the conduct of war has killed and injured Moro civilians. He added that the “red carpet bombings” carried out by the military to flush out “terrorists” in MILF-controlled areas violated the Hague and Geneva conventions and their protocols, and constituted acts of genocide or commission of war crimes under the still unratified Statute of Rome.
The MILF said that it was only during the arrival of the International Monitoring Team led by the Malaysian government to monitor and oversee the implementation of the ceasefire agreement that encounters between the government forces and the MILF have been minimized, thereby bringing limited peace in Bangsamoro communities in Mindanao. On July 15, 2003, upon the intercession of the Malaysian government, a new ceasefire agreement initiated by Malacañang was signed by the GRP and the MILF.
But political analysts agreed that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo initiated the new ceasefire agreement to resume peace talks upon the instruction of the U.S. government which wants to exploit the peace process to convince the MILF to abandon its armed political struggle for self-determination, a view shared by the MILF.
While the ceasefire agreement governed by the GRP-MILF Tripoli Agreement on Peace “minimized” the encounters between the contending forces, it did not stop the military from violating the basic human rights and civil liberties of the Moro people and from passing off the Moro people as “terrorists and legitimate targets of the US-RP war against terror”.
Displaced by All-out Military Offensives
The Kawangib Moro Human Rights Organizations documented 21 cases of human rights violations perpetrated by the AFP, elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and intelligence agents of the Arroyo administration from January to November 2007.
In the course of military operations, more than 75,000 Moro civilians were reportedly displaced in Basilan, Sulu and Midsayap in North Cotabato. It said that Sulu was the hardest hit with 58,500 civilians due to three major military operations launched last year by Task Force Comet, a large-scale assault force composed of battalions of marines, army, air force and para-military units against the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
The all-out war against alleged MNLF territories was carried out because leaders of this faction of the Moro secessionist group were allegedly colluding with the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah groups against the government and the U.S. troops currently in Mindanao for the joint RP-U.S. military exercises.
