Various reactionary forces have been invoking the death of 44 elements of the PNP Special Action Force in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on January 25 to propagate anti-Moro chauvinism and call for all-out war against the Moro people.
They have been spreading distorted versions of history to demonize all Moro forces as terrorists, and depict them as the masterminds behind some of the bloodiest massacres in the history of the Moro struggle.
In fact, ever since the US-Marcos dictatorship commenced the massive anti-Moro war in the 1970s, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and other state-supported forces have unhesitatingly killed or injured unarmed civilians. Every reactionary regime after Marcos used varying combinations of violence and deception to suppress the Moro people’s struggle for self-determination.
Hundreds of thousands of Moro civilians have been victimized by the AFP’s military campaigns. On many occaions, state forces bombed and unleashed artillery fire, killing civilians or causing their massive displacement. In many instances, soldiers mercilessly rained bullets on civilians in retaliation for losses suffered in fighting with armed Moro movements like the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) or in the process of pursuing the Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
Under the Marcos regime. The most heinous attack perpetrated by the AFP in the history of suppressing the Moro struggle is the burning of Jolo City on February 7-8, 1974. At least 10,000 Muslims, Christians and Chinese residents were killed when the city burned down due to relentless AFP bombardment from land, sea and air. In pursuing MNLF forces that had occupied certain parts of Jolo City, the AFP used cannons of the Philippine Navy and jets, Tora-Tora planes and helicopter gunships of the Philippine Air Force and other AFP services. They targeted and burned down the Tulay Mosque, the Chinese Pun Tai Kung Temple, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the entire city center. As the fire raged, 80% of Jolo City was reduced to ashes by February 8. This spurred the diaspora of tens of thousands of residents to other parts of Mindanao, to neighboring Sabah, Malaysia and to Luzon and the Visayas. Controlled by the Marcos dictatorship, the mass media suppressed the truth regarding the burning of Jolo.
Following are some of the most striking cases under the Marcos regime:
June 1971. Combined forces of the Philippine Constabulary and Ilaga paramilitaries attacked civilians praying in a mosque in Manili, Carmen, North Cotabato, killing 70 Moros, including women and children.
November 1971. Forty Moro civilians were killed in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte in the so-called Tacub Massacre.
September 1971. Elements of the 15th IB massacred 1,776 Moro civilians praying at the Tacbil Mosque in Malisbong, Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat. Moro girls were taken aboard a Philippine Navy ship where they were gang raped.
October 1977. Up to 700 Moro civilians were slaughtered by AFP soldiers in Patikul, Sulu in retaliation for the deaths of Brig. Gen. Teodulfo Bautista and 34 of his men.
February 1981. Up to 2,000 residents of Pata Island in Jolo, Sulu were massacred by the reactionary military after 124 soldiers under the 31st IB were killed in the island.
Throughout the 1970s until the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, up to 500,000 Moros were either killed or forced to evacuate from their homes.
US-Aquino regime 1 to US-Aquino regime 2. Armed attacks against the Moro forces waned after the MNLF entered into a ceasefire agreement with the Corazon Aquino regime in 1987. In a series of deceptive maneuvers, the MNLF’s surrender was effected in 1994 by the succeeding regime of Fidel Ramos, which was also able to negotiate a ceasefire with the MILF in 1996.
When the US-Estrada regime took power, however, openly armed attacks by state forces resumed against the Moro people with the revocation of the ceasefire and the declaration of all-out war against the MILF in March 2000. The Estrada government deployed 70% of the AFP’s forces against the MILF to crush its known strongholds in Mindanao.
Months of relentless attacks led to the forcible displacement anew of 500,000 Moro people who were cramped in evacuation centers in Cotabato, Maguindanao, Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur. Thousands of civilians were killed, including those victimized by the AFP’s bombing and artillery attacks which it conducted without letup. Not a few fell victim to other human rights violations like extrajudicial killing, illegal arrest, harasment, torture, food blockades, arson and other transgressions common to military operations.
To keep the Moro people divided, the Estrada regime used MNLF integrees in the AFP to attack the MILF. It also formed vigilante groups to stoke religious and other differences.
Under the US-Arroyo regime, which took over after the Estrada government, AFP attacks against Moro communities intensified in 2008, after MILF armed resistance resumed due to a Supreme Court decision declaring the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) illegal. The MILF and the Arroyo government had signed the MoA-Ad as part of the peace process they had begun anew. It was in this period that the number of displaced persons in Moro areas reached unprecedented heights. In 2008, the Philippines was second among countries with the most number of evacuees worldwide (600,000), according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, a non-government organization under the Norwegian Refugee Council.
By May 2009, the number persons forced to evacuate had ballooned to 750,000 in various Mindanao provinces due to the AFP’s pursuit operations against the MILF. At least 50 civilians were killed in these operations, including four children in Datu Piang, Maguindanao who were slain on September 8, 2008 in an air strike by the Philippine Air Force. The children were then aboard a dugout canoe with their parents and were on their way to an evacuation center when they were strafed by the AFP combat plane.
In the first half of May 2009, close to 30,000 people evacuated from Datu Piang when the AFP conducted non-stop air bombardment and unleashed mortar fire on alleged MILF camps. Worse, the military blocked humanitarian organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross from delivering food to the evacuees.
Meanwhile, civilians were also indicriminately killed amid AFP pursuit operations against Abu Sayyaf bandits under the Arroyo government. On February 4, 2008, seven people, including two children, two teenagers and a soldier on furlough were killed by attacking elements of the Philippine Marines in Ipil, Maimbung, Sulu. The victims were simple seaweed farmers, with some of them shot while they were already aboard boats to escape the firing. The children were shot in the head. In spite of this, the AFP absolved the Marines of any wrongdoing, contrary to the results of investigations conducted by other groups, including the Commission on Human Rights.
Under the regime of Benigno Aquino III, the Government of the Philippines (GPH) resumed talks with the MILF and signed the Framework Agreement in October 2012, with intensive negotiations beginning in July 2013. This angered the MNLF under Nur Misuari because a new accord would supersede its 1994 agreement with the GPH.
In September 2013, some 250 MNLF forces arrived in Zamboanga City to rally against the peace agreement being forged by the MILF and the Aquino government. The Zamboanga Siege occurred when 5,000 AFP and PNP forces swooped down on the MNLF, sparking a 20-day battle. The AFP used high-powered firearms, helicopters and armored personnel carriers, and rained bombs and bullets on Zamboanga City’s coastal villages. The AFP attacks caused the displacement of 120,000 people and the destruction of some 10,000 houses. Twelve civilians were also killed and 75 Moros wounded.
The civilians’ suffering did not end with the Zamboanga Siege. By December 2014, there were 35,000 refugees still languishing in cramped and unsanitary evacuation centers due to the Aquino government’s refusal to allow them to return to their communities. Close to 200 of them have died from various ailments. Prostitution, the illegal drug trade and other crimes have become rampant in the evacuation centers because of the lack of livelihood.
The signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro by the MILF and the Aquino government on January 24, 2014 was taken by the AFP as a signal to concentrate its attacks on the BIFF. The BIFF was formed in 2008 when Moro forces who did not believe that the aspirations of the Bangsamoro could be achieved by the MILF-GPH agreement broke away from the MILF.
From January 27 to February 2, 2014, the AFP launched Operation Darkhorse and relentlessly attacked various areas in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Western Mindanao and Central Mindanao believed to be BIFF strongholds. Up to 48,200 Moro people were forced to flee because of continuous AFP air strikes and artillery fire on civilian communities.
When the AFP resumed pursuit operations against the BIFF in November 2014, up to 400 people were forced to evacuate in North Cotabato.
By the end of 2014, there were 44,000 evacuees in the ARMM; 38,200 in Western Mindanao; and 9,300 in Central Mindanao due to AFP military operations against the BIFF.
Currently, the AFP is using the MILF as its proxy in pursuing the BIFF. Since February 13, up to 15,000 persons have evacuated from six barangays in Pikit, North Cotabato and two barangays in Pagalungan, Maguindanao due to clashes between the two groups.
[Ang Bayan is the official news organ of the Communist
Party of the Philippines
http://www.philippinerevolution.net/publications/ang_bayan/20150221/the-afp-s-vicious-attacks-against-moro-civilians
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.