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Stop the war against the Moro people!

At first glance, the Feb. 7 outbreak of renewed warfare in far-away Jolo island seems to be limited only to a breakaway faction of the MNLF led by Ustadz Habier Malik. It seems to merely repeat Misuari’s failed rebellion in 2001 that led to his arrest and imprisonment.

But the heavy casualties show the wider extent of armed hostilities this time, as Moro guerrillas identified with the MNLF continue to battle six AFP battalions deployed in the area. Already, around 75 Army and Marine troops have been killed (many of then remain unconfirmed by the AFP brass), in addition to scores of wounded.

Much more than military casualties, however, is the immeasurable impact of the renewed war on civilian lives and livelihoods. The AFP has subjected the war-torn towns of Sulu to indiscriminate bombardment from ground and air.

According to reports from the war zones, Army and Marine troops are on a rampage of destruction against the civilian Moro population, in reprisal for having suffered badly against the deadly MNLF attacks. Civilians are misrepresented as combatants or simply written off as collateral damage. To date, there is still no actual reportage by mainstream media on the extent of military madness against the civilian populace.

As a result, hundreds of innocent Moro civilians, many of whom were women and children, have been killed. More than 5,000 people have been displaced from the towns of Panamao, Luuk, Parang, Indanan, Panglima Estino and Maimbung. Many of them are now refugees in and around the capital town of Jolo.

The wholesale carnage and destruction must stop.

Indiscriminate bombing is a crime against humanity – a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions and its additional Protocol II, to which the Republic of the Philippines is a state party.

Thus, a broad array of organizations and institutions nationwide, including lawmakers and religious leaders, have called on the government to stop escalating the war, to initiate moves towards a truce, and to investigate and resolve the root causes of the armed conflict. Even the MILF, bogged down in its peace talks with the GRP, has offered to help negotiate a truce.

At the very least, the AFP battalions should stop the bombardment and pull out from the worst-affected areas, so that the local people can return to their homes and farms, and so that the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations could safely come in to help in relief and rehabilitation.

But no – Gloria and her generals will have none of this mawkish, pacifist sentimentalism. Judging from their most recent statements, the government and its AFP are lusting for more blood: “If they want war, we will give it to them.” “Inumpisahan nila, tatapusin namin.” And true enough, another Marine battalion and a US-trained Light Reaction Company (LRC) has been deployed to Sulu to wreak more havoc.

Worse, GMA’s advisers are considering the possibility of declaring a state of emergency for the entire Mindanao-Sulu area.

But such moves will only widen the arena of war. They haven’t learned the lesson of past regimes, from the time of Spanish and US colonialists down to the era of Marcos and Estrada: the Moro people were never cowed by force of arms. If at all, escalating all-out war and repression in Mindanao-Sulu will only further fan the flames of insurgency and secessionist demands.

At first glance, the latest outbreak in Sulu seems to have been triggered by a single incident – when AFP troops in pursuit of Abu Sayyaf bandits allegedly killed a family in Maimbung town, including a pregnant Tausug woman, thus provoking the MNLF into retaliatory attacks.

But that incident is merely a small part of a wider pattern of human rights violations in the name of “anti-terrorism and anti-criminality” in Mindanao-Sulu. This, in turn, is clearly in line with the government’s efforts to clear all obstacles for the massive entry of foreign investors especially in mining and other extractive industries, including the infrastructure that this would require.

Also, America’s role in the whole scenario must also not be discounted. The US has been invoking its “crusade against terrorism” to justify attacks on other countries and to expand its bases, troop presence as well as business opportunities worldwide. For the US, Mindanao-Sulu is a prime target in this regard.

Thus, the US-AFP war is not only directed against the MNLF, or MILF and other rebel groups for that matter, but against the entire Moro people – nay, the whole people of Mindanao-Sulu – so that foreign exploiters can have a freer hand in the plunder of the rich resources of the so-called Land of Promise.

With that in mind, it is now clear that other regions of the country, including resource-rich Northern Luzon, are in danger of suffering the same consequences.

The war against the Moro is a war against the Filipino. The Feb. 7 outbreak in Sulu is only a drip in the gigantic tsunami that will engulf the country unless the entire people unite and protest against national oppression and fascist repression. #

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