Groups call for end to military bombings, fighting in Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines – An alliance of peace advocacy groups in Manila has joined calls for a stop to military bombings in Zamboanga Sibugay and asked both the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to use mechanisms in the peace talks to defuse the situation.

“We fully support the President’s stand that we cannot create the supreme injustice of pushing more soldiers, rebel mujaheedins and innocent civilians to die in an all-out war in our desire to bring to justice a few erring elements,” the Mindanao Solidarity Network (MSN) said in a statement.

It added that the best way for justice to be served for the soldiers killed during an ambush by MILF members in Basilan as well as for all “victims of war” was to fast-track the political settlement of the armed conflict in Mindanao and the Bangsamoro issue.

“We wish to remind everyone that peace does not come from dropping bombs, that war solves nothing. Nobody wins in war. We are all victims,” it said.

MSN is composed of Balay Rehabilitation Center, Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute, Center for Peace Education, The Peacemaker’s Circle Foundation, Inc., GENPEACE Anak Mindanao, PInay Kilos, Pilipina, Initiatives for International Dialogue, Binhi ng Kapayapaan, Young Moro Professionals and World March for Peace.

MSN urged both the government and the MILF peace panels to “implement the prompt and effective use” of existing mechanisms such as the joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group and the International Monitoring Team to “help defuse the situation and prevent further loss of lives.”

It urged the two sides’ negotiating panels “to pursue with more vigor and determination the quest for a speedy resolution of the Mindanao Question so as to bring peace to the whole nation.”

Meanwhile, activist priest Fr. Robert Reyes and members of the Mindanao People’s Caucus are scheduled to run  for peace in Davao City Sunday morning from the Davao Medical School Foundation to the Brokenshire College.

“We want to show that we’re not for all-out war. We’re weary of war, and because of this, Muslims are going back again to evacuation centers. We’re back to zero,” Shirley Mercado of MPC said by phone.

Reyes said: “The All-Out Run for All-Out Peace in Davao City is an expression of the Mindanaons’ frustration over the vicious cycle of war and peace. Muslims and Christians run and pray to strengthen solidarity and hope in true and lasting peace.”

MSN observed that 30,000 people have fled their homes in Zamboanga Sibugay and Basilan after days of military operations.

“Are we planning to head for the same disastrous scenario that we witnessed during the wars in the past? Experience has shown that the Mindanao crisis cannot be solved through a purely military solution because the problems in Muslim Mindanao are multi-faceted – poverty, lack of basic services, economic injustice, deficiencies in governance, criminality, terrorism,” it said.