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COTABATO, Philippines - The cycle of armed conflict between Philippine armed
forces and Islamic rebels fighting for an independent homeland has taken an
extraordinary human toll on this country's southern island of Mindanao. With
extreme atrocities committed on both sides, it is the Philippines' own "dirty
war".
In August, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's government and the largest
insurgent Muslim fighting force, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), were
scheduled to sign a deal that would
have after decades of armed conflict and over 150,000 casualties acted to
create an autonomous homeland for ethnic Moro Muslims.
The Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) was planned to encompass six provinces,
two cities and 1,000 Muslim-dominated villages in central and western Mindanao.
The memorandum's signing, scheduled for August 5 at a neutral site in Kuala
Lumpur, was aborted at the eleventh hour. The Philippine Supreme Court aborted
the signing ceremony after several groups contended they were not consulted
during negotiations and raised questions about the deal's constitutionality.
The MILF had previously rejected government negotiators' inclusion of the
phrase "constitutional process" as the mode of implementation of the agreement.
The government had earlier demanded that the BJE be approved by a plebiscite, a
proposal that the MILF had rejected.
A plebiscite in 2001, that proposed to expand its previous autonomous area from
four to 14 provinces, was voted down. Peace talks in 2006 bogged down after the
government rejected the MILF's demand to include 1,000 villages in the proposed
BJE without a popular referendum.
To underline their latest frustration, rouge Moro rebels - who were acting on
their own, according to their leaders - stormed several civilian communities
and killed dozens of people. The killing spree prompted Manila to suspend the
peace talks. The government subsequently ordered a massive assault against
areas controlled by two rebel commanders allegedly involved in the deadly
attacks.
Since then, approximately 600,000 people have fled the renewed fighting and
become internally displaced refugees in their own country. According to the
International Committee of the Red Cross, the armed clashes have also
discouraged people displaced by earlier hostilities from returning to their
homes, as many hoped the peace deal would have encouraged.
The renewed armed hostilities have also dangerously revived simmering religious
tensions in the region. A radical Christian group, known for its bloody attacks
and human-rights abuses in southern Philippines in the 1970s, resurfaced and
warned the MILF to stop its harassment against civilians or face violent
consequences.
The government says now it will only revive peace talks if there is
disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of displaced people. The MILF, on
the other hand, refuses to disarm prior to any final peace agreement. With the
impasse, rights groups fear the long-term displacement of hundreds of thousands
of civilians.
As the security situation has deteriorated, Manila has disbanded its Government
of the Republic Peace Panel that formerly held negotiations with the MILF. A
new panel is to be created this month, but MILF rebel chief Mohagher Iqbal told
this reporter the move "is not enough" unless the government honored the
canceled memorandum agreement.
With peace talks for now off the table, mediator Malaysia has pulled out its
remaining peacekeeping monitors. While Arroyo has come under growing
international pressure, including from the United States and Great Britain, to
stop the fighting and resume negotiations, there is no end in sight to the
fight.
The portraits that accompany this article represent the protagonists,
victims and overall despair to one of Southeast Asia's most prolonged, tragic
and hidden-from-view conflicts.
Jeoffrey Maitem is a Filipino freelance journalist based in the southern
Philippines. His reporting focuses on politics, business, internal conflict,
terrorism and religion. He may be reached at jeof.maitem@gmail.com
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
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