24 April 2009

We feel totally rebellious seeing the Moro civilians under siege and living in an atmosphere of fear and terror due to the indiscriminate and relentless mortar shelling by the government soldiers (Pakalat sa ginawa samaya ka kinukok samaya i mga civilians a Moro anya sabap sa kina pamasuka na sundalo anya sa dala den tuldo nin) .”

That was one of the sms messages received by Luwaran.Com/Net from local sources in the embattled municipalities of Maguindanao describing the deplorable situation of the civilians caused by the onslaught of the operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

AFP had been conducting intense operations against MILF forces, especially the group under Commander Ustaz Ameril Umbra Kato, starting the break of dawn on the 18th of this month in the towns of Shariff Aguak, Mamasapano, Rajah Buayan, Datu Piang, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Datu Unsay Ampatuan, Guinulungan and Talayan, all of Maguindanao.

Thousands of AFP soldiers from eight (8) infantry battalions of the Philippine Army, dozens of tanks and armor cars, countless artillery strikes and backed up by heavily armed paramilitary forces and civilian volunteers are being utilized for this siege purportedly against MILF forces but in fact terrorizing and taunting innocent Moro civilians and communities.

Two camps of MILF were captured, AFP claimed yesterday. Total lie and lame justification of the carnage perpetrated by the government soldiers against innocent civilians and communities, said MILF commanders.

“There are no MILF camps in the area pounded by the disproportional and abusive military operations. What the military had destroyed again are civilian communities,” said MILF commander on the ground in a text message.

“There had been no actual ground encounter between our forces because the military operations are actually targeting our civilians. What the military had been doing was to fire mortars almost whole day but these had not killed or injured any of our men and had not flushed us out of our positions,” he said.

“We attacked the military detachment in Pansol, Guindulungan Sunday and that was the only actual firefight that took place,” he pointed out.

Civilians fear of the arbitrary arrests being done by AFP men. In fact some civilians were already arrested illegally by AFP. AFP said these civilians are MILF bombing operatives, a case of apprehending anybody without due process then later on tagged anybody with any comfortable fabricated accusations and charges.

A girl identified as Rohana Haron was wounded by the indiscriminate mortar shelling an old man also died of cardiac arrest due to the mortar shelling, both cases in Datu Piang, Maguindanao.

Indiscriminate AFP operations against MILF commenced August last year, displacing 600,000 plus civilians. In the same month, AFP said it captured several MILF camps in Shariff Aguak, Datu Saudi and Mamasapano. Now these camps were captured again. It’s confusing because it would mean that after August last year, these camps were regained by MILF forces that’s why they were recaptured again by AFP yesterday.

But the plain truth is these areas are civilian communities which were totally wrecked, torched to flame and dehumanized by the government disproportional military operations showcasing collective punishment and war crimes deliberately committed against the aggrieved Bangsamoro people.