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Speaking Tour of NZ:
23 Oct - 1 Nov 2007
Amirah Lidasan
Tour Report

Stop The Killings
in The Philippines
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HIDDEN VOICES
A Filipino Muslim Woman
On The US War On Terror
And Its Impact On Her People.
TOURING NZ 23 OCTOBER- 1 NOVEMBER 2007
Amirah Ali Lidasan is the National Vice-Chairperson of
the Suara Bangsamoro Party List Organisation, which aims
to get representation in Congress for the
Philippines several million Muslims (known as Moros
and heavily concentrated in the southernmost islands).
Amirah is a young progressive Muslim woman, with a
history of senior leadership in the student movement in
Manila, and is a leader in groups such as the Moro
Christian Peoples Alliance. She has an
international profile. In March 2007 she was part of a
Philippine human rights delegation which toured North
America and Europe, drawing international attention to
the human rights crisis at home.
The Philippine military has been waging a full blown
conventional war in the southern Philippines since the
1970s (simultaneous to the better known and equally long
war against the Communist guerrillas throughout the whole
country). Right now that war is seeing some of its
heaviest fighting in decades, with direct involvement
from the US Special Forces who have been stationed in the
southern Philippines since 2002. It has had hugely
negative consequences for the whole Muslim population in
the South (including Amirah and her family) and it has
now become part and parcel of Bushs global
War on Terror against Islamic
terrorists. Indeed, he has proclaimed the
Philippines to be The Second Front in that
war.
Amirah Ali Lidasans tour presents a unique
opportunity to hear firsthand about a war in our own
backyard that is almost totally unknown to New
Zealanders. She is the first Filipino Muslim speaker that
we have hosted, and a Muslim woman at that. She is also
be our youngest ever speaker (she is in her early 30s)
and the first weve had from Mindanao. An NZ
speaking tour by a progressive Muslim woman leader is
very timely, because Philippine President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark are
co-sponsors of a series of high profile international
Interfaith Religious Dialogues which have been held in
both countries in 2006 and 07. This is a chance for New
Zealanders to actually hear from one of the voiceless,
namely a Filipino Muslim, who have suffered centuries of
repression and neglect.
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