The Young Moro Professionals Network-Western Mindanao
(YMPN-WP) expressed condemnation and alarm over what it called
"insufferable violence" affecting nearly more than 90,000 displaced
individuals, most of them children, in at least 11 towns of Maguindanao because
of the all-out offensive by the government against the Bangsamoro Islamic
Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
Based on the records of the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao Humanitarian Emergency Action Response Team (ARMM Heart), around
19,075 families were forced to abandon their homes in the towns of Shariff
Saydona, Mamasapano, Datu Unsay, Shariff Aguak, Datu Salibo, Saudi Ampatuan,
Rajah Buayan, Talayan, Guindulungan, Talitay, Datu Anggal, and Midtimbang.
"For many of bakwits , this new round of exodus is a
repeated life of harrowing tragedy that they do not deserve," said Ameen
Camlian, communications officer of YMPN-WM.
Camlian cited how school children have been affected by the
conflict as they were forced out of school, some of them are supposed to
graduate from elementary and high school this month.
"At the evacuation centers, we could only feel sorry
for their pain and agony as they go through the hard life of being bakwits once
again: congested sleeping areas, insufficient food and lack of clean drinking
water, children getting ill, and the uncertainty of what's to come tomorrow for
them and their children," Camlian said.
"The sad truth is – the civilians are suffering the
consequences of the war waged by the government against the BIFF. It disrupted
the normalcy of their lives, putting them in a situation where they are most
vulnerable to more and more violence."
Camlian echoed reports of alleged abuses committed by
soldiers as they pursue members of BIFF : An infant in Datu Saudi Ampatuan was
allegedly hit by a stray bullet in the leg, the heavy shelling in civilian
areas, the use of soldiers of government buildings, schools and mosques, and
the looting activities. The war also destroyed homes and flattened crops.
"At the evacuation centers, the bakwits are a picture
of human suffering," he said. "And all these reports of violations of
human rights only prove the vulnerabilities of civilians in times of war."
That the soldiers are after the BIFF is something that the
network understands, he said. He, however, said that what should be primarily
considered is the impact of the war on the civilians.
"We are reminding the government and the BIFF to pay
utmost respect to human dignity and basic rights as mandated by the Geneva
Convention on the Protection of civilian persons and populations in time of
war," said Camlian. "The civilians have been displaced from their
homes already, living another agonizing chapter of unpeace. Dragging them into
the war, and right into the battlefield is just too much already."
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=744305
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