The neighboring nation of Malaysia has figured prominently in peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao. Malaysia has brokered the talks since 2001 and contributed 50 military men for an International Monitoring Team (IMT) that currently monitors the ceasefire between the government and the MILF . A young Malaysian working for a Mindanao-based peace group presents these insights of a peace builder and civilian observing the Mindanao conflict on the ground.
{mosimage}The neighboring nation of Malaysia has figured prominently in peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao. Malaysia has brokered the talks since 2001 and contributed 50 military men for an International Monitoring Team (IMT) that currently monitors the ceasefire between the government and the MILF . A young Malaysian working for a Mindanao-based peace group presents these insights of a peace builder and civilian observing the Mindanao conflict on the ground.
Since July 1 this year, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) started search operations against reported members of the Abu Sayyaf Group or ASG in Maguindanao. The military has full access to the area because the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) – which is talking peace and observing a ceasefire with the government – consented to move out from two of their camps in the province. The official reason for the military operations is to hunt down the criminal elements in the area (in this case the infamous Abu Sayyaf). Yet despite reported help from the United States, there have been few sightings and armed encounters with the ASG members. Peace groups concerned with the growing displacement of civilians are now questioning the extended military operations and other theories are cropping up (some local people claim there are treasure hunting ventures in the area too!).
I was fortunate enough to join in the Mindanao Peoples Caucus’s Bantay Ceasefire Mission to Barangay Ahan on August 6. Fresh from an international conference on armed conflict prevention in the United States, I felt I needed to be on the ground to make sense of my own work, and to see how the global meetings on peace building and actual ground activities for the grassroots people fit together.
{mosimage}After a briefing by a top government official of the Joint CCCH (Coordinating Committee for the Cessation of Hostilities) in Cotabato City, some 40 Bantay Ceasefire volunteers headed the next day for Guindolongan town in Maguindanao. Having been in Mindanao for more than a year, I was no longer struck by the similarity in the climate and geography of the Philippines and Malaysia. But it doesn’t stop me from appreciating the beautiful landscape, the fresh country air, and faces not unlike back home. The only marked difference between a Malaysian countryside or “kampung” and Philippine countryside are the military posts or checkpoints along the Philippine highways. I never got used to seeing that, and I hope I will not get immune to these things. It is scary to think that there are still places where carrying weapons openly are deemed normal and part of everyday life.
After a courtesy call on the Guindolongan Mayor, the BC group proceeded to the area. Barangay Ahan is not accessible to vehicles (only buffalo carts can manage the dirt road) so we had to park our van and truck at the evacuation center and started on foot. The weather was gloriously fine and we walked for about three hours, crossing rivers and streams and passing by rice, corn and sesame plant fields…
Many of the homes in Ahan were abandoned, but we saw some evacuees who had returned to harvest their crops. They were only allowed in their farms from 7 am – 3 pm daily and this was insufficient because it took the evacuees 3 hours hike from the evacuation centre to their farms and 3 hours back. And they did not have enough manpower to do the hard labour too! (The Bantay Ceasefire negotiated on behalf of the evacuees for easing of these restrictions and we learned later that the evacuees were allowed a longer time).
What’s worrisome to the people of the area is the real risk of being caught in crossfire between government soldiers and the Abu Sayyaf and also the uncertainty of not being able to properly harvest their crops. The government assistance at the evacuation center was not enough (at the time, only 5kg of rice with some dried fish were given out per family). It was ironic to take a walk around their rich fields and see the abandoned crops almost drying up, while their owners were going hungry due to the insufficient ration (while the Philippine government is spending billions for its defense budget). The evacuees who had returned complained how they were unable to save their crops from being eaten by wild boars and monkeys.
On the way back, we met an old woman visibly shaken and under stress who kept on shouting “Patay! Patay! Patay” (“Die! Die! Die”). She was referring to an air plane that had flown over their area everyday; she and her family were worried that the plane would drop bombs on them. We were also intrigued because none of the locals we had talked to said they had seen the Abu Sayyaf Group, yet the military had extended military operations because of confirmed ASG sightings. It was also apparent that the locals were more afraid of armed encounters and the spy plane than of being kidnapped by the dreaded kidnap-for-ransom group, the ASG!
We also had differing explanations for that airplane’s presence in the area — a AFP/CCCH official said it was a weather plane, while a senior IMT member told us its a US spy plane which directs the ground operations below. Also that it was being flown some 10-13 hours every day at a cost of RM50,000 (about P710,000) per hour! There is no official acknowledgement from the Philippine government that US forces are involved in this anti-terrorism operation in Mindanao (I suppose for fear of criticism), but US newspapers have reported on the joint anti-terror operations between US and the Philippines (perhaps to reassure US taxpayers that their monies are being spent well in the war against terror?).
Many questions remain in our minds : If the villagers have never seen ASG in their area, why are the military in the area for that long? Is it true – according to the military officials- that some ASG members have already inter-married with the locals? The military also claims reliable intelligence information about “criminal” elements in the areas especially behind the so-called Mount Perez. But why has there been few encounters or contact with the terrorists a month since the operations started? Is the Philippine army just on military exercises with the US?
We did find at one spot some used ready-to-eat meal packages issued to the US military. Was this indication of US troops combat involvement on the ground? Whoever used it certainly didn’t care about the standard-issue US soldier meals being discovered!
It was a long and tiring investigation for us. But we were also there to help the people return to their abandoned areas and harvest their crops. Despite eating some tasty chicken-and-rice pastil (a Maguindanao version of ready-to-eat meals wrapped in bio-degradable banana leaf – unlike the plastic US version!), I found I didn’t have much energy left to help in the harvesting. On the ride back, I wondered how the evacuees were expected to walk that far and still have strength to harvest their crops.
Farhariza Ajir has have been with IID since February 2004 and currently the Project Officer for Special Projects. Her main responsibility is to oversee the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) project of which IID is the regional secretariat for Southeast Asia. Before joining IID, she was Programme Officer for Public Education in Sisters in Islam, a progressive women’s group in Malaysia, working on the rights of women within the Islamic framework.
An internship with SEACA-IPD in 2003 on advocacy brought Farha to the Philippines. It gave her the opportunity to know and work with IID. “My time in Mindanao had such a deep impact in me; my interest in the plight of evacuees remained even after I went back to Kuala Lumpur, where I assisted in capacity building and some humanitarian assistance for Aceh refugees community there”, Farha said.
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