| Home Kapatiran
Links
Contact Us
Archive
Issue Number 29/30, May 2008
|
Kapatiran Issue
No. 29/30, May 2008
A KIWI IN THE WAR ZONE
International Women’s Peace And Solidarity Mission
To Basilan And Mindanao, August 2007
- Mary Ellen O’Connor
The Lonely Planet guide simply issues a warning about
this area: “Travellers are advised to avoid
travelling to most of Mindanao, an island in the southern
Philippines, especially the Zamboanga peninsula and the
Sulu archipelago where ethnic and religious animosities
fuel ongoing violence”. I knew this to be the case
without reading the guide. I had visited the Philippines
in 2005 on a human rights solidarity mission in which my
team was to have travelled south to the Sulu archipelago,
of which Basilan is one island, but this was called off,
due to just such a violent outbreak. So we stayed in
Manila and examined the situation there for the domestic
refugees from the Mindanao/Sulu area. Driven out of their
ancestral homelands in this traditionally Muslim area
(very close to Malaysia) these people now inhabit the
worst of the worst Manila slums (Mary Ellen’s report
on her 2005 visit, “Moros Consigned To Manila’s
Slums, Rubbish Dumps & Prisons”, is in Kapatiran
25/26, December 2005, which can be read online at
http://www.converge.org.nz/psna/Kapatiran/KapNo25n26/Kap25n26Art/art116.htm.
Ed.).
Known as “Moro,” another version of the word
“Moor”, these people make up a significant
Muslim minority, in a predominantly Catholic country. The
Moro people are proud of their ancestry. It was their
forbears who established the sultanates, in the Sulu
area, the first political structure in the country prior
to the coming of the Spanish colonisers in the 1520s. But
these sultanates, under pressure during the period of
Spanish colonisation, were obliterated after Spain sold
the Philippines to the United States for $US20 million in
1898. The displacement of the Moro people began shortly
after this when their lands in the south were opened up
for fruit and rubber plantations by transnational
pioneers such as Dole and Del Monte. Filipino workers
from poor and landless families in the Christian north
and east were enticed to work for these companies with
the promise of free (Moro) land. In this way, the Moro
people were disenfranchised and, over time, became a
minority in their own land. Moro liberation
organisations, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)
and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) grew up to
challenge these interests and the Catholic and American-
dominated administrations. The presence of these and
other less disciplined groups has long been an obstacle
to total exploitation of the area by mostly foreign,
commercial interests so the armed forces and the police
have played a key role in neu-tralising protest. The
southern Philip-pines fell into disrepute as one of the
poor, conflicted areas of the world, mostly ignored
unless an incident of piracy or kidnapping by Muslim
“ter-rorists” warranted media attention and the
consequent horrified response of the civilised world.
Until the 9/11 attacks on the US in 2001. This provided
the rationale not only for the Middle East “war on
terror” but also for the “second front in the
war on terror” in the southern Philippines. The
US-trained Armed For-ces of the Philippines (AFP) began
“Balikatan” (“shoulder to shoulder”)
joint military exercises with the US military, in the
archipelago in 2002, a massive escalation of the military
presence and activity in the name of stabilisation.
Massive desta-bilisation resulted, in which the real
victims are the non-combatants, the women and children.
Already minimal infrastructure was decimated as schools
and other centres were taken over as military bases. As
violence intensified, the Moro became refu-gees in their
own country, many driven north to Manila. Those who
stayed suffered all manner of privations, in some cases,
starvation.
“No More Widows! No More Orphans! No More Macho
Wars!”
So how did I find myself on Basilan shortly after one of
these uglier outbursts, in July 2007, in which 14 AFP
troops, searching for kidnapped Italian priest, Father
Bossi, were ambushed, killed and ten of them beheaded? A
Muslim imam (priest) was also killed. Basilan,
reminiscent of Central America 25 years ago, is a heavily
militarised tropical paradise with the US presence
palpable.
In the wake of this incident, the Global Partnership for
the Prevention of Armed Conflict (South East Asia) and
the Mindanao Peace Weavers, through their various
networks, put out the call for interested women to go to
Basilan as part of an international peace mission to
express concern and solidarity to the people there. The
rallying cry was: “Peace is the braver option! No
more widows, no more orphans, no more macho wars.” I
decided to go, in full knowledge that this would be a
peace promoting rather than a peace achieving mission. My
fare was kindly paid by IID (Initiatives for
International Dialogue, which serves as the regionnal
secretariat for the Global Partnership for the Prevention
of Armed Conflict).
On the expedition were two experienced Filipino
activists, Mary Ann Anando, a lawyer from Davao, and
Karen Tanada of the Ortigas Peace Institute, Manila, a
Franciscan nun from Tarlac, north of Manila, and seven
delegates from New Zealand, Australia, the United
Kingdom, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste. Most were
there in a professional context, as journalists or
development workers. On arrival in Zamboanga, the gateway
to Sulu, Mary Ann informed me that I was group leader and
spokesperson. Presumably my status as a second time human
rights visi-tor had catapulted me into this position,
though there was never an explanation. Maybe it was just
the grey hair. Fortunately I had glanced through the
mission statement on the plane so was able to field the
initial questions at the forum hosted by PAZ (Peace
Advocates Zamboanga). This was attended by
representatives from many different Muslim and Christian
organisations in the area, keen to hear about our mission
and also present their own views. Over lunch, we were
informed of the deaths of 25 members of the AFP and
several others in Jolo, Sulu.
Meeting The Bishop & The Muslim Dynasty
After a brief tour of Zamboanga, we boarded the boat for
Basilan, a regular ferry apart from the armed escort on
board. We were now joined by three more women leaders
from Davao - Ruby Rose Lora, Carmen Lauzon and Baileng
Mantawil, an older male academic from Jolo, Octavio
Dinampo, and few muscular young men from Zamboanga. From
the boat, all looked like a tropical paradise, similar to
other parts of South East Asia, with little houses built
above the water and little boats zipping around below.
After disembarkation in Isabela, the capital of Basilan,
we were driven to Querexta Formation, a Catholic Centre
where we were to stay, very much part of the fabric of
Isabela, already bearing battle scars. The entrance
featured a burnt out jeep mounted as a memorial with an
inscription: “Chaos is evil: Peace is good”.
There lived the Bishop of Basilan who immediately invited
us all into his little office where we were welcomed
warmly and offered the luscious local fruit - mangosteens
and lanzones - which grow in abundance in these parts.
Lots of jokey anecdotes were told. He was a portly,
funny, relaxed individual whose personality seemed to fit
him uniquely well for the non-partisan stance he was
taking.
After this we were shown upstairs to dilapidated but
adequate rooms with two narrow beds in each. I shared
with Elisabeth from Timor Leste a very vital young woman
working for an Australian NGO in Dili. That night our
dinner consisted of rice, swedes, beef and shrimps
prepared in the very primitive kitchen by some of the
many people who work, live or hang out around this
centre, many obviously Muslim. We were very well fed,
unlike many on this island.
The following day we were taken to meet the Governor of
Basilan, Jun Akbar, first wife of Congressman Wahib
Akbar, and her very large entourage. The Akbars are a
Muslim dynasty, his second wife being the Mayor of
Isabela. It was here that I experienced that
quintessentially New Zealand sensation, that we
don’t even know ABC when it comes to politics.
Family alliances and agendas shift and merge with local
and central government ambitions all against a very
complex backdrop. Danger is ever-present. Back in New
Zealand in October, I heard that Wahib Akbar had been
killed, victim of a bomb explosion in the Congress
Building in Manila.
On this occasion, Mary Ann exhorted the Gover-nor to take
the initiative in dealing with the recent problems to
pre-empt anyone else doing so. She and her niece, the
Mayor of Lantawan, a nearby town, responded that all was
under control. The discussion turned out to be academic -
later that day we read that 12,000 more troops were being
or-dered into Jolo. The session ended with a plea from
the provincial health officer of Basilan for doctors,
saying the situation was dire. This in a country where
the doctors are retraining as nurses to go and work
overseas because there are no jobs for them.
The forgotten status of the area is striking. Those
willing to talk all spoke of lack of infrastructure as
the major problem. Poor health and little education are
endemic. While the state of underdevelopment prevails,
the area remains dependent on the Army for road and
bridge building, health clinics, transport and even food,
at best a cynical, and at worst a sinister, situation.
Some joke that the Army are the labourers of Sulu.
Marines, Mass & Murder
We went to visit them - in fact the Marine regiment
involved in the July 10 incident. Their base had
ob-viously been a community centre of some sort. We were
welcomed into a formally set-up meeting room by the
Colonel. I expressed our condolences about their losses.
We were treated to a DVD of their humanitarian work,
including graphic photos of circumcisions. Once
formalities were over, discussion quickly hardened. The
peace team asked questions about the role of the Army in
entering what was a recognised MILF area on July 10. This
was hotly defended by the Colonel as being necessary to
rescue Father Bossi. The tension was defused by Mary Ann
providing the Colonel with a copy of the JIFFC report
(Joint Inde-pendent Fact Finding Committee, with
representatives from both the Government and the MILF)
into the July 10 incident. He was obviously pleased to
have this, pointing out that his regiment had not been
consulted for this report. The session finished
positively enough for us to invite Wen, the female tank
commander, to join us at the planned women’s circle
that afternoon. She accepted.
The women’s’ circle was a gathering of locals,
a mix of information, solidarity and entertainment.
Several women spoke of the suffering of the women in
these parts, the poverty, the fear, the lack of
education, the death of sick children because of
transport problems and/or lack of medical services. They
also spoke of their own peace efforts including running
mobile caravans for feeding people in remote locations.
Religious differences are immaterial they all agreed, it
is about getting basic services, basic human rights.
Justice is a pre-requisite for peace and peace is a
pre-requisite for human development was written up on a
whiteboard. Towards the end of the afternoon, Wen, the
tank comman-der spoke (seemingly) from the heart about us
all wanting the same thing. The afternoon ended with us
all singing, hands together in a circle.
In an unplanned turn of events, the Mayor of Lantawan
then appeared and invited our group to an exotic country
house with a swimming pool and restaurant complex where
we were given sandwiches and drinks. Conversation is
always a seamless mix of English and Tagalog which means
we sometimes missed critical bits of information but it
was obvious that the she was picking the brains of the
activists in our group, a turnaround from this morning
when she insisted all was under control.
On Sunday, I went to 6a.m. Sunday Mass with Sister Vida,
Karen and Elisabeth at the Catholic cathedral in Isabela.
A very traditional service, with marriage banns
announced, payments for Masses detailed, and the priest
delivering a very didactic sermon about stewardship.
There was no reference, direct or indirect, to the
growing violence and instability in the immediate region.
With notable exceptions, the Catholic clergy stick to the
script.
Later that day we headed into the hinterlands of Basilan,
towards Guinante, where the July 10 incident had taken
place. Just as we left, a large Police vehicle, with
eight armed officers on board arrived to escort us. Some
in our party believed that to be provocative but there
was no leaving without them. As we drove away from
Isabela through rubber and coconut planta-tions, the
settlements became poorer and poorer. We passed many
little houses with a dozen children huddled in the front
doorway gazing out at the passing parade. We stopped
briefly to meet the mayor of Tipo Tipo province whose
throw-away comment was that anyone who spoke the truth on
this island was either in exile or dead. By this point
the roads had become what we would call undriveable, but
not by them. We eventually arrived at the village near
Guinante where the widow of murdered Imam Hakanul lived.
Since the incident she had been looking after 13
children. Many families had relocated from Guinante to
this village but the parents returned there to work,
leaving children with older women, like herself. We
counted the 13, gorgeous and shy, huddled together at a
distance. She and her daughter were quite overwhelmed by
this visit from 25 unknowns and a Police contingent, her
daughter sobbing helplessly all the time. And we had a
language problem. Only three in our party could speak the
local dialect so while there was much we could have
learnt, there was little opportunity to do so. We were
told that the MILF were based just beyond that village.
We were told that the people were afraid of the Army but
liked the Police. The child minders told us they had no
medicines. We gave them the relief provisions we had
brought and the gaunt skeletal faces of the women
encouraged us to leave our lunches as well. I
couldn’t bring myself to take any photos of them.
I’m not sure that the people there understood our
solidarity visit as anything other than food distribution
and indeed I think that was the most useful aspect of it.
Our experience of hunger was not very sustained because,
in the inex-plicable way things happen there, on the
return journey we were invited to eat at a house where
they had been celebrating an Islamic graduation. The
warmth and vitality of this household contrasted markedly
with the hollowed out passivity we’d witnessed
previously, only an hour away.
Military & Media Scepticism
Our last visit was to WestMinCom HQ – West Mindanao
Command Head Quarters, back in Zamboanga, the following
day. Again we were warmly welcomed and offered food and
drink though they all seemed bemused that we were there.
This time I presented the JIFFC report (into July 10) and
made a plea that they not escalate violence. They said
more troops were being brought in to stabilise the
situation. We begged to differ about the stabilising role
of the troops. However, the atmosphere was much more
relaxed than with the Marines in the field and they
in-sisted on a photo with us before we left.
At the Zamboanga press conference later, scepticism
ruled. What had we achieved? What difference had we made?
Why did we bother going? How could we impact on such a
complex situation? What effect did we hope to have on the
Army? Our answers must have sounded extra-terrestrial to
them. One of our party then asked the journalists how
they saw their role in the peace process, pointing out
that their constant coverage of violence, aggression and
militarisation, acts to escalate the tensions. A female
journalist from the Philippine Daily Inquirer eventually
admitted that she was very conflicted. She fully
understands both the issues of the area and the
aggravating role of the press but has to write war,
rather than peace, for the sake of newspaper sales. So we
were very lucky to be featured in a column in that
newspaper the following day, under the heading
“Macho Wars”:
“Perhaps in the end, the Mindanao problem will be
solved not by the largely macho-led wars of military
hawks based in Manila but by the pockets of peace efforts
from even the most unlikely sectors of the Mindanao
grassroots. In war, women may not necessarily be the
victims. They can also be the victors”.
PS. In September 2007, the violence in Sulu and Basilan
escalated with the deaths of many armed personnel, those
of the Muslim resistance groups and civilians. In October
and November 2007, the national President of Suara
Bangsa-moro (Voice of the Moro People) Party List
Organisation, Amirah Ali Lidasan, did a speaking tour of
New Zealand to raise consciousness about the plight of
the Moro in the Southern Philippines (see Murray
Horton’s article on Amirah’s tour, and
Amirah’s speech, both else-where in this issue.
Ed.). In January 2008, Suara Bangsamoro urged the
Philippines government to cancel “Balikatan”,
scheduled for February, saying the previous military
exerci-ses had left issues of human rights violations
still unresolved.
Mary Ellen O’Connor is a PSNA member who has visited
the Philippines several times and is the Coordinator of
the newly founded Wellington Kiwi Pinoy group.
Go to top
|
