Wednesday, August 20, 2008 Wenceslao: MILF should prove its respectability By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
GOVERNMENT should talk peace only with reasonable and respectable armed groups or it could end up looking dumb, like what the Arroyo administration is viewed with the way the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is acting. The attacks on villages in North Cotabato and recently Lanao del Norte also caused untold suffering on people in the area.
One can interpret the latest atrocities the MILF committed two ways: the MILF leadership does not have control over some of its commanders or the attacks are actually part of the rebel groups’ strategy of forcing the signing of the contested Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on ancestral domain. Either way, the group is not a good party to a peace talk.
MILF vice chairman for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar said attacks by a group led by Umbra Kato on North Cotabato and by another group led by Abdullah Macapaar a.k.a. Bravo on Lanao del Norte were a result of their dissatisfaction over the stalled agreement. If so, how much more destructive would they be if the Supreme Court totally junks the MOA?
The biggest indictment against the MILF is the trail of atrocities its commanders left in North Cotabato and Lanao del Norte, which included murder of unarmed civilians, hostage-taking, burning of houses, destruction of plantations, looting of properties, etc. This reduced the MILF to a bandit gang or terrorist group not worth negotiating with.
A reasonable and respectable rebel group like what the MILF is portraying itself to its patron, the Organization of Islamic Conference, should at least have knowledge of international humanitarian law. It must understand that there are rules to be followed to protect victims of armed confrontation. That separates the bandit from a true rebel group.
Article 4 of Protocol II (Protection of victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts of the Geneva Conventions states:
“1. All persons who do not take a direct part or who have ceased to take part in hostilities, whether or not their liberty has been restricted, are entitled to respect for their person, honor and convictions and religious practices. They shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction. It is prohibited to order that there shall be no survivors.
“2. Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the following acts against the persons referred to in paragraph I are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever: (a) violence to the life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in particular murder as well as cruel treatment such as torture, mutilation or any form of corporal punishment;
“(b) collective punishments; (c) taking of hostages; (d) acts of terrorism; (e) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution and any form or indecent assault; (f) slavery and the slave trade in all their forms; (g) pillage; (h) threats to commit any or the foregoing acts.”
There are compelling reasons, therefore, for the Arroyo administration to stop negotiating with the MILF until: a) it controls its field commanders; b) it shows its sincerity in the negotiations by punishing commanders Kato and Bravo and the others who committed the recent atrocities; and c) it conducts its war in a civilized way.
(khanwens@yahoo.com/ my blog: cebuano.wordpress.com)]
