Maguindanao evacuees refuse to return home

COTABATO CITY — Despite the fragile peace which now prevails in Maguindanao’s Shariff Aguak, Mamasapano and Datu Unsay towns, many evacuees still refuse to go back to their villages.

The reason: they have nowhere to return to since their houses were razed to the ground during the hostilities between marauding Moro rebels and pro-government militiamen from June 28 to July 6.

Oblate missionary Roberto Layson, director of the Peace Center of the Notre Dame University here, appealed to the government and foreign donors to take advantage of the low-level truce between the Moro guerrillas and militias loyal to Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan to provide shelter to the displaced villagers.

More than 15,000 marginalized Maguindanaons, dependent on rice and corn farming for livelihood, were forced to flee their homes when Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels and combined militiamen and civilian volunteers battled for almost a week in the three towns, sparked by the June 23 roadside bombing in Shariff Aguak, which left seven people dead and nearly killed Ampatuan.

Layson, a member of the Mindanao People’s Caucus, a peace advocacy group involved in monitoring the comprehensive ceasefire between the MILF and the Armed Forces, said the remaining concern now of various non-government groups helping the Mindanao peace process, the government-MILF joint coordinating committee on the cessation of hostilities and the international monitoring team is the sustained rehabilitation of the evacuees.

"In conflicts, there are no victors, only the vanquished. There are three main losers in armed conflicts: the parties involved in the fighting, or the protagonists, and the innocent civilians trapped in the crossfire. We have thousands of these innocent victims now," Layson said.

Von Al-Haq, chairman of the MILF ceasefire committee, posted yesterday an appeal on the front’s website, luwaran.com, for an immediate cross-sectoral support for the construction of shelters for the evacuees.

Records obtained from Al-Haq and his government counterpart, retired Brig. Gen. Ramon Santos, show that 237 houses were razed in the neighboring barangays of Tapikan, Lapok Kuloy, Lab, Kulampong, Bantingaw and Iganagampong, all located at the tri-boundary of Shariff Aguak, Mamasapano and Datu Unsay towns.

"We call on concerned agencies, non-government organizations and international humanitarian groups to immediately help these innocent victims rebuild their houses," Al-Haq said.

Santos, deputy of Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza, said they have been reaching out to the evacuees with the help of the Malaysian-led international monitoring team.

Dr. Hadji Tahir Sulaik, chief of the Maguindanao Integrated Provincial Hospital, confirmed last Thursday the deaths of three evacuees, including a 10-month-old infant.

"We cannot return to our village because we have nowhere to stay there. Our house was burned, and our farm animals were lost during the encounters," said Samira Abdullah, a mother of five.

Ruby Sahali-Tan, social welfare secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the evacuees got relief assistance with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"So many of them are afraid to return to their villages," Sahali-Tan said.

Dureza, who has ministerial control over the government’s ceasefire committee, said, "It is easy to rebuild houses and roads, but it is so difficult to heal the wounds in the hearts of all the people affected by the conflict."