Bloodletting continues in Government - MILF conflict

(Conclusion)

Secretly, after the government’s capture of Camp Abubakar, young professionals in Cotabato City held regular meetings in different venues, discussing how they could pursue peaceful means of furthering the ideals of the MILF and its vision of self-rule for Muslims in Mindanao.

A medical practitioner, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that their zeal in peacefully supporting the recognition of Muslims as a self-governing people was fired by President Estrada’s feasting on roasted pork inside Camp Abubakar on July 10, a day after soldiers had overrun it.

"He did not insult the MILF by doing it. He trampled on Muslims in Mindanao whose welfare he had vowed to protect during the election campaign in 1998," the young doctor told The STAR.

For many Muslims in Central Mindanao, Camp Abubakar is hallowed ground that once showcased a typical Islamic community where there was no separation of public governance and religion.

Evacuees

Until now, 24,300 evacuees continue to languish in evacuation sites in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and North Cotabato. Children in relief centers tremble, cry and even faint at the sight of soldiers in combat uniforms.

"These are the children who hate the government even in their most tender years," said Badria Kanakan, a volunteer relief worker.

From a distance, people in peaceful, predominantly Christian areas in other regions point to some local executives in war-torn areas as the main culprits responsible for the worsening situation in troubled areas of the South.

"Some of them don’t give a damn about the plight of their people. The more intense the hostilities are in their towns, the happier they are because they can capitalize on the displacement of their people to project that they are helpful. Some of them get huge calamity funds when there is trouble in their towns," said a 46-year-old Dominican nun.

Just last week, sources from the intelligence community said they have been getting feedback that some MILF rebels in remote towns in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao have joined forces with armed followers of influential politicians to escape the continuing military onslaught against rebel forces in many hostile areas.

"And we know what kind of politics we have in these provinces. This can make the elections next year become more violent. There can be evacuations again if election-related hostilities erupt," commented peace advocate Hadji Ahmad Bayam, former MNLF chief propagandist in Central Mindanao.

Peaceful means

Fr. Eliseo Mercado Jr., president of the Oblate-nun Notre Dame University, the biggest Catholic school in Cotabato City, said peace advocates in Mindanao should continue to help the government and rebel factions on the island exhaust all peaceful means of resolving the Mindanao conflict.

"There can never be a better way of resolving the problem than that of peacefully negotiating how to end the conflict and work hand-in-hand in furthering socio-economic growth in Mindanao," Mercado said.

While the Mindanao conflict is being downplayed by the government as a secessionist problem, majority of the Muslims in the South regard it as one which is "premised on the issues of land, race and religion."

"We must remember that there is no single Christian in the Visayas and Luzon who does not have a Muslim forefather," said Ustadz Yah-yah Omar, a foreign-trained Islamic theologian.

While government and MILF negotiators still have a long way to go to work out a negotiated settlement, residents in Mindanao could only hope to see an end to the nagging peace and order problems on the island, whose people have grown so familiar with armed conflicts that have stunted the socio-economic growth of their communities.