CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM TENSION MOUNTS : Atrocities force more Cotabato folk to flee

PAGALUNGAN, Maguinda-nao – Evacuation sites here are again crowded with people, mostly from Kabacan and Carmen towns, who have fled from their homes following a spate of atrocities in their communities that has heightened tension between Muslim and Christian settlers in the two towns.

Dr. Kadil Sinolinding Jr., this town’s health officer, said their workers have noticed an exodus of at least 50 families from secluded districts in Carmen and Kabacan where there has been a rash of killings of Muslim and Christian settlers.

The latest incident that sent the villagers fleeing from their homes was the grenade attack on an evacuation site housing Muslims in the Kayaga district of Kabacan town, which left two children dead and seven others badly wounded.

The incident came less than 24 hours after a grenade blast inside the Kabacan campus of the University of Southern Mindanao left four Christian students dead and 11 others wounded.

"After that, a soldier in a remote barangay in Kabacan was gunned down by a rebel sniper. People are afraid the security problems in Kabacan would worsen, so some of the residents there have evacuated to the adjoining towns of Pagalungan and Pagagawan," Sinolinding told The STAR.

Evacuees from Carmen, according to Sinolinding, could have decided to seek refuge in the two neighboring Maguindanao towns because no one among the armed men responsible for the recent isolated killings of Muslims and Christians, including the massacre of innocent civilians in the area, has been arrested or prosecuted.

"They believe that there are now retaliations and they are worried about their safety," Sinolinding said.

He said they are focusing their relief work on the sick and traumatized children in the evacuation sites who need toys as "tension relievers," apart from medicines, food and clothing.

Col. Hermogenes Esperon, commander of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, which has jurisdiction over this municipality and nearby North Cotabato towns, said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has been sowing dissension among Muslim and Christian residents to project that a religious war is going on.

"That is why we are initiating dialogues with all sectors to prevent the MILF from capitalizing on that strategy to justify their waging of a jihad," Esperon said.

Esperon said barangay officials in areas covered by the 602nd IB have been helping defuse tension in their communities through peaceful means.

"The MILF instigated these security problems also to embarrass the military which recently overran more than a dozen (of their) camps in North Cotabato alone," he added.