Friday, September 05, 2008 No more hope for peace in Mindanao By Cong B. Corrales
THE partylist group, Suara BangsaMoro said Thursday the government decision to dissolve the government peace panel will further escalate the conflict in Mindanao.
Amirah Ali Lidasan, Suara Bangsamoro national president said as the government dissolved the peace panel, it is also spreading anti-Moro hysteria in the island with the local government units' and the police's move supplying firearms to civilians and reviving vigilante groups like the Ilaga.
She lamented that while many houses of Muslims were burned in North Cotabato, these went unreported. And the many houses burned that went unreported.
"Who will really lose credibility to the international community in terms of brokering peace? With the war and chaos now happening in Mindanao, what credibility does the Arroyo administration can show to the international community?" asked Lidasan in a statement emailed to Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.
President Arroyo dissolved the government peace panel last Tuesday and ordered Peace Adviser Hermogenes Esperon to review all existing agreements between the MILF.
Ghadzali Jaafar, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's (MILF) vice chairman for political affairs, however, is more optimistic that there is a "flicker of hope in the peace negotiations.
Speaking over radio stations in Cotabato City, Jaafar said he is hopeful that the government will reconstitute a new panel that will push through with the negotiations.
"I don't think the government, when it disbanded the peace panel, is no longer interested in trying to settle the Mindanao conflict," said Jaafar.
He pointed out that dissolving a peace panel and cutting off peace talks are different things. "A panel can be reconstituted again. I don't think that will be a problem," he said.
Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo slammed President Arroyo for using the peace negotiations with the MILF to advance US interests in Mindanao.
He said Mindanao will likely suffer another round of armed conflict and this time it will be much worst with government troops imposing food blockades against Moro communities.
Ocampo said, "It has been a long time interest of the US to establish military presence and resource extraction in the Philippines, among others."
He pointed out that the US government is particularly interested in the Liguasan Marsh in Maguindanao, which he described as more rich in oil and gas than Brunei Darussalam.
According to Auliya Alonto, academician from the Moro Studies Institute, the Memorandum of Agreement on the Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD)could have addressed and corrected the historical injustice done to the Bangsamoro people.
Alonto added that historically the Bangsamoro nation-state predates the Philippines as a nation. "The root of the Moro problem is colonialism," she said.
InPEACE Mindanao and Karapatan appeals on government troops to allow peace, relief and fact-finding missions to conduct their humanitarian work unhampered.
"The heightening armed conflict in Mindanao, brought about to a large extent, by the government's bungling of the GRP-MILF peace process, is again resulting to massive violations of human rights and international humanitarian law," said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, adding that the military offensives have likewise caused violations such as forced evacuation and destruction of properties. Media has reported several incidents of civilians who were hurt due to mortar shelling by government forces.
Hilao-Enriquez added "With the escalating number of evacuees, the two sides must stop the hostilities and return to the negotiating table to resolve the thorny issues. The evacuees' well-being must be considered."
