3 Maguindanao barangays declared ‘peace zones’

DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Ma—guindanao — Responding to the call for Muslims to unite and fight terrorism, local officials declared yesterday three barangays traversed by the national highway connecting this town to General Santos City, as "peace zones."

This town’s mayor, Datu Ombra Sinsuat, said municipal officials and leaders of the three barangays — Kurintem, Makir and Dalican — will stop lawless elements and Muslim guerrillas from using the communities as springboards for their activities.

The three barangays, which have a total population of 15,000, mostly families of Moro guerrillas, have been tagged as "ambush areas" since the early 1970s, Sinsuat said.

"It was only in the last five years that no big incidents have taken place in any of these areas. Still, we are not taking chances. We have to be one step ahead always," he added.

Sinsuat said armed groups, including kidnappers, have repeatedly used the three barangays as "launching pads" for their heinous activities.

The move to declare the three barangays as "peace zones" was done with the help of non-government organizations, the police, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and the management office of the Canadian-funded Local Government Support Program (LGSP) in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Sinsuat and officials of the three communities, the 6th ID and the provincial police signed the peace covenant in simple rites here yesterday.

The creation of the peace zones resulted from condemnations by Muslim leaders of last Sunday’s bombings in General Santos City, which left 15 people dead and 55 others wounded.

Muslim leaders have urged Muslim communities in Mindanao not to be misled by what they called the "satanic propaganda" of the Abu Sayyaf that the bombings were "spiritually justified" because they were carried out in retaliation for the military’s continuing offensive against its forces in Basilan.

Hadji Metalicop Unda, a Maranaw sultan belonging to one of the four royal houses in Lanao del Sur, said Muslim communities in the South must now help in the government’s fight against terrorists capitalizing on religion to justify their actions.

"Islam is a religion which teaches equality of all men, regardless of color, race and creed. It encourages patience, humility and rejection of evil. It does not condone terrorism," said Unda, former ARMM environment and natural resources secretary.

Datu Michael Sinsuat, former mayor of Upi, Maguindanao and cousin of this town’s mayor, said the people who have claimed responsibility for the bombings were kafir, or non-believers, and not Muslims.

"Nowhere in the Holy Qur’an can we find a single teaching espousing the use of violence and massacre of innocent people just to propagate our faith," he said.