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Thursday, November 10, 2005
Editorial: Dirty tactics
THE military is perhaps expecting too much when it challenged human rights groups to also investigate and condemn the communist rebels for using landmines in their latest attack against soldiers in one Agusan del Sur town.
That assault cost the lives of at least two soldiers and wounded several others including civilians. The incident comes on the heels of the declaration by the New People's Army (NPA) that it would step up offensives in the rural areas as part of its efforts with other groups to topple the Arroyo administration (and every administration for that matter).
As had been reiterated by the military the use of landmines had been prohibited under international law since it had labeled as inhumane. Though in reality war is inhumane so very little compliance can actually be expected among the countries.
The same can be said of the insurgency situation here. The rebels have been accusing the military of torching some villages, molesting women and beating up helpless farmer folks whom the latter identified to be working with the "other side"--namely the communist movement.
The military and the rebels have likewise traded charges of using minors either as informants or actual combatants though in the case of the communist rebels the likelihood is true as children were taught since their formative years that the government is corrupt, the system is corrupt and thus the better alternative is the communist--pardon, the politically correct term is socialist--system.
The rebels at least admitted to using the mines but would justify this as part of the realities of waging war against the military. They would also charge that the military is not above using dirty tactics in its counter-insurgency war.
For their part some rights groups would reason that they are defending the rights of the marginalized sectors who have been oppressed by the powers that be--namely the military and its other ancillary institutions and government as well.
Thus the use of landmines in skirmishes between the military and rebels is yet something both sides may find hard to swallow--and for us civilians quite hard both to fully appreciate yet hardly ignore--but have to live with as they try to outgun and outmaneuver each other in their attempts to win the war not only in the field but in the hearts and minds of every Filipino.
(November 10, 2005 issue)
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