Sunday, April 6, 2008

Cover Story

A journey for peace
By Radzini Oledan

THERE are two wars in our midst. One is fought in the battlefields and the other is fought in evacuation centers where children and senior citizens fight for their survival. In this kind of war, more civilians die than combatants.

"War is a lie and will never solve the Mindanao problem," Fr. Bert Layson, co-chair of the Mindanao People's Caucus. "It is a problem that is best solve in the negotiating table and not in the battlefield," he added.

On March 13, the year long peace campaign was launched with a youth peace caravan from key cities in Mindanao to Visayas and culminating in Corregidor on March 18 where the 40 years anniversary of the Jabidah massacre was observed.

Anwar Upahm, chair of the United Youth of the Philippines (UNYPAD) said it is the children and youth who have been greatly affected by the conflict in Mindanao. "Lubog ang Mindanao sa destruksiyon at kagamitan sa giyera, imbes na tinitingnan ang edukasyon nang mga kabataan," he said.

"Even history books does not reflect the atrocities committed against the Moros, even the heroes of Mindanao are not acknowledged," Upahm added.

Layson said it is high time for government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to sign and implement the peace agreement. "If they have conscience, they should listen to the young people," he added.

Upahm said implementing the peace agreement would entail listening to the voice of the young people who are asserting that they need to be part of the solution in Mindanao. "We are tire do war, tired of running away from home," he pointed out. "Please listen to us, we want to be a part of the solution."

Layson said the people in Mindanao are already "tired of violence, treachery and deceit." "If there is still humanity left in you, sign and implement the peace agreement," he said, addressing the plea to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Layson said that since late last year, the peace talks had been dragging on. "Our experience in Mindanao shows that whenever there is no clear direction on the peace talks, war would erupt. "And we are tired of war."

Attorney Mary Ann Arnado, MPC secretary-general said that while there is an executive order upholding the primacy of the peace process in Mindanao, there remains a question on the sincerity of government and the MILF to implement the peace agreement.

Salem Demuna, chair of the Learned Kagans Foundation, said signing the peace agreement is useless unless there is sincere implementation. "While the rest of the country is doing business, Mindanawans are evacuating," he said. " The people, especially the children, need food and education, not bullets and bombs nor five star generals."

Forum and youth encounters

The caravan highlighted the wider participation of the youth in peace building by expanding the awareness and understanding of the youth on the challenges confronting Mindanao. "We need to let a wider reach in enabling the youth to know and understand the conflict in Mindanao," Demuna said.

Norayah Bagindaali of the Bangsamoro Youth Leaders Forum said the voice of the youth and children are often unheard in the peace process. "Emotionally traumatized ang mga kabataan, nahihirapan sa pag-aaral at nabubuhay sa takot," she said.

Bagindaali said the youth are starting to assert that their voices be heard by policymakers and decision makes who have assumed the authority to decide for their future. "Coming from war affected communities, our hearts shatter at the sight of children dying from preventable diseases in evacuation centers. We lament on the dismal condition of young people missing the basic right to education as their communities get hostage with this seemingly intractable armed conflict," she added.

Arnado said the situation of children and youth in Mindanao and the environment of disharmony in several communities have been left out in the national consciousness with the more sensational events in Metro Manila. "Mindanao is experiencing disharmony. They have to listen to the resounding voices of the youth," Arnado added.

Jabidah massacre

"...This controversial incident sparked the Bangsamoro struggle for national self-determination which cause is sanctified by hundreds and thousands of lives of Moro men, women and children.... This marker serves as a remembrance and a beacon for us living to continue the struggle for justice that their deaths would not be lost in vain." -marker unveiled in Corregidor on March 18.

On March 18, the youth peace caravan culminated the 40 years anniversary of the Jabidah massacre at the grassy Kindley airfield in Corregidor. It was also a time for Jibin Arula, a survivor of the massacre, to look back and recount the incident, which fueled the organization of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Arula recalled he and the other recruits were brought to the island on January 3, 1968 for training on guerrilla tactics in preparation for "Operation Merdeka," then a top-secret plan of the Marcos administration to invade the east Malaysian state of Sabah, which the Philippine claimed as part of its territory.

Their training officers fired at them before dawn on March 18, 1968 after an attempt by the trainees to air their grievances against the officers to Malacañang. Arula, who was hit by a bullet on the left knee, swam for his life across Manila Bay.

Arula said the codename for the destabilization plan was Operation Merdeka, which involved the recruitment of nearly 200 Tausug and Sama Muslims aged 18 to 30 from Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and their training in the island-town of Simunul in Tawi-Tawi.

On December 30 that year, from 135 to 180 recruits boarded a Philippine Navy vessel for the island of Corregidor in Luzon for "specialized training." The second phase of the training turned mutinous when the recruits discovered their true mission. It struck the recruits that the plan would mean not only fighting their brother Muslims in Sabah, but also possibly killing their own Tausug and Sama relatives living there. Additionally, the recruits had already begun to feel disgruntled over the non-payment of the promised P50 monthly allowance. The recruits then demanded to be returned home.

Arula, who said he wanted to forget the incident which ruined not only his life but also of his family, said that in batches of twelve, they were taken to the airstrip where the plotters mowed the trainees down with gunfire. "I hear a series of shots and saw my friend and colleagues fall." "I mustered all the courage and ran towards a mountain and rolled off the edge on the sea." He recalled clinging to a plank of wood and stayed afloat. By morning, fishers from nearby Cavite rescued him.

Court-martial proceedings were brought against twenty-three military personnel involved. The matter made its way to the Supreme Court in 1970, on a preliminary issue but failed to pin down the perpetrators.

Rectification

Bapa Jose Akmad, who had long been in the forefront of the peace movement in Mindanao, said that behind the curtain of the Jabidah massacre, government should rectify the wrong done against the Moro people and not wait for another eruption of rebellion."

"The Jabidah massacre is not the only massacre committed against the Bangsamoro. There are a lot of undocumented massacres against the Moro people but this one extremely touches the Moro community and fueled the start of the Moro rebellion," "We need dialogue and negotiation. The crisis does not benefit Mindanao," Akmad added.

The five-day peace caravan that began in Mindanao also launched the year long campaign for peace, with the call for the government to immediately sign the peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

"We are already in the crucial stage of the negotiations, with 90 percent of the points concerning the ancestral domain finished. So we are calling on the government to exercise its political will to sign the accord." Arnado emphasized.

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