This was the muffled observation of one of the mediamen when members of an Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), led by their elder commander were presented during a press conference Thursday morning at the 104th Army Brigade in Tabiawan, Isabela City in Basilan.
ARMED AND DANGEROUS? — Six teenage Abu Sayyaf Group combatants (from second from left), handling weapons that look more like toys in their young hands, are accompanied by their commander Sulaiman Kasaran (left), when the group surrendered to authorities at an Army base in Basilan Monday. (Nonoy E. Lacson)
Their heads bowed, the surrenderees – aged 18 to 20 years old – carelessly handled their respective rifles like they were mere toys in a game of banditry that ASG has waved for years in southern Philippines.
Marwin Asan Kasaran, alias Abu Hadjie; Derwin Asan Kasaran, alias Abu Dikki; and Halid Asan Kasaran alias Abu Nasirin Awalin are brothers whose father, Sulaiman Kasaran, was a former Army soldier who had gone rouge after the military refused to extend his sick leave.
According to Lt. Col. Enerito D. Lebeco, commander of the 18th Battalion stationed in Al-Barka town, it was no longer a surprise that there were young combatants in the ASG.
“These kids were actually younger when they joined the ASG. Many joined even before they could handle an Armalite rifle,” said Lebeco, who had doggedly worked for the group’s surrender as early as October when he started to win their trust and confidence that the military will protect and look after them once they return to the fold of the law.
Apart from poverty, family feuds, which are locally known as “rido,” have swept these children into the ranks of the ASG “because the bandit group would give them false promises about being able to protect them from their enemies.”
And while Moro separatist groups, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), had also been reported to have nurtured “child warriors” in the past, these kids were indoctrinated in the tenets of Muslim principles.
“But with the ASG, the indoctrination came in the form of poverty and the promise of financial rewards,” Lebeco said.
This was why the ASG was able to start its recruitment of the minor combatants at an early age, “training them at assembling IEDs (improvised explosive devices) because their young, steady hands could easily handle the bomb components.”
“(ASG) has long been exploiting these kids and endangering them by throwing them in the field of battle at such a young age,” declared Lebeco who noted that intelligence reports show that half of the ASG roster in Basilan was “filled with minors.”
But Lebeco said the surrender of Kasaran and his small group of teenager-combatants “could open the gates for more children and teenagers who are currently under the wing of ASG to leave the world of banditry behind.”
“As we told Kasaran’s group, the military will protect them from any reprisal from the ASG,” he said.
Lebeco added that “all that was needed was for us to really touch base with these innocent people and, surely, word will get out to the others who may want to surrender.”
“I am not a Muslim, I am a Catholic. But I was able to find a way for them to trust in me and I have promised them that I would put my life on the line if only to prevent anything untoward happening to them,” Lebeco said.
http://www.mb.com.ph/poverty-draws-kids-to-life-of-banditry/
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