Government troops are said to have virtually turned the civilian communities into military sites, risking the lives of civilians from possible attacks of the BIFF and other armed groups.
By ALEX D. LOPEZ
Davao Today
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Moro residents who were dislocated in the August clash between the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the AFP in Maguindanao have refused to go back to their homes out of fear, says a human rights group.
In an interview with Davao Today, Bai Ali Indayla, spokesperson for Kawagib, a Moro human rights organization, said they conducted a fact finding mission on September 13 “not only to provide temporary relief but also to pin down issues affecting the evacuation and their safe return.”
She said that weeks after the evacuees were advised by local authorities for them to return to their homes, old residents were not convinced of going back. They said, the continuing presence of military is disturbing.
“The military’s presence is not reassuring at all,” Fairudz Usman, a resident of Iganagampong village has told Kawagib.
Government troops are said to have virtually turned the civilian communities into military sites, risking the lives of civilians from possible attacks of the BIFF and other armed groups.
According to Indayla, for more than a month, the evacuees struggled through a tough condition in the evacuation centers with their children most vulnerable to diseases and trauma.
Far from their homes and sources of living, they were beset with how they can survive inside the evacuation centers and if they can still go back to their homes.
During the mission, medical assistance and psychosocial intervention were extended, thanks to the volunteers from the different parts of Mindanao and medical personnel from the health department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
More or less 100 children and 40 women residents had undergone psychosocial intervention while more than 300 individuals received medical assistance.
During the psychosocial intervention, the effects of war to the children were noted by the mission’s participants.
Kawagib said they found out that the children already “treat mortar shelling just as any ordinary sound” and that “gunshots are like drumbeats to them.”
“All the houses that we have checked in the two villages were evidently ransacked and vandalized,” Indayla said, adding that other residents reported on the loss of valuables and other items aside from the damages to their houses.
Religious sites like mosques were not spared, according to Indayla, as to what happened in Bagan village in Guindulungan town. The soldiers have transformed the mosque as their temporary camp.
“This is really appalling,” Indayla said.
In Maguindanao province, Kawagib said, “Military encampments are found in almost all of the affected areas; military checkpoints at every periphery along the highway were also put up.”
The human rights group has been calling against the military’s encampment in civilian communities. (Alex D. Lopez/davaotoday.com)
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