Civilians caught in BIFF-Army crossfire refuse evacuation for fear of bandit tag

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Many of the civilians wounded in Monday’s crossfire between soldiers and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) had refused evacuation to hospitals for fear of being tagged as BIFF members, a human rights group said.

Bobby Benito, executive director of the Mindanao Human Rights Action Center (MinHRAC), had posted on his Facebook timeline that the villagers from the border of Maguindanao’s Datu Piang and Shariff Saidona towns were injured when 105 Howitzer cannon shells landed in their area.

“Hindi madala sa hospital kasi takot ang mga kamag-anak na hulihin ng mga sundalo at sasabihing mga miyembro ng BIFF,” Benito said, referring to injured villagers.

The Army-BIFF encounters in Barangay Damablas and Ganta, located at the boundary of the two towns, started early Monday when bandits surrounded Army detachments and opened fire with assault rifles and anti-tank rockets.

Benito has called on the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has an office in Cotabato, and the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT) to provide assistance to the wounded civilians.

The IMT, comprised of soldiers and policemen from Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Libya, and non-uniformed conflict-resolution and socio-economic experts from Norway, Japan and the European Union, has been helping oversee since late 2003 the enforcement of the ceasefire accord between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The extremist BIFF, which splintered from the MILF in 2010, does not recognize the interim truce.

Benito said villagers displaced by the conflict need food and shelter.

He had also called on the media to help monitor the plight of the civilians wounded in the ensuing crossfire.