Sunday, September 23, 2007 Group believes Martial law still exists in Moro areas
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- A Moro human rights group claims that Martial law still exists in Mindanao, especially in Moro-dominated areas, in the guise of the Arroyo government's anti-terror campaign.
Kawagib, a Davao City-based Moro human rights group, joined hundreds of rights activists all over the country that remembered thousands of those that died when Martial law was declared, 35 years old ago.
“Martial Law still exists in Mindanao, particularly in Moro areas under the pretext of pulverizing terrorists. The public is still being made to believe that the terrorist scare justifies anti-people measures like the Human Security Act and all-out war in Moro communities, even during Ramadan, the holy month of fasting,” said Kawagib’s spokesperson Sittie Rajabia Sundang.
When the anti-terror campaign was launched, Sundang’s group monitored at least 200 Moro individuals were killed as a result of military operations against Moro rebel groups and the Abu Sayyaf in the provinces of Maguindanao, Shariff Kabungsuan, Lanao del Sur, North Cotabato, Basilan and Sulu.
Some 450T individuals were also displaced from their ancestral homes in the midst of ongoing military operations, and millions of pesos worth of property, farms and livelihood destroyed.
Kawagib has also recorded 132 cases of illegal arrests and detention of suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Kawagib said the setting up of security checkpoints along the highway in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (Armm) and the establishments of AFP detachments in Moro-dominated villages are proof that Martial law is still alive, especially among the Moro communities.
"Every after military operation, residents fear going back should they risk military reprisal. They even have to sneak in their farmlands to harvest their crops," Sundang said.
In the recent military operations in Basilan and Sulu where more than 10 thousand Marines and other government forces were deployed, more than 24,000 residents have fled their communities.
The human rights group has even condemned the killing of Moro children in Basilan tagged as ASG “child protégés”.
Sundang, in a press statement, has also used as proof the alleged arrest and torture of eight Moro teens in Indanan, Sulu on August 2007. (MCManar of Sun.Star General Santos)
