Posts Tagged ‘Abu’
War Victims & Displaced Families Suffering in Mindanao
By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan
The unending war on the island of Mindanao, Philippines continues to kill, maim, and scarify thousands of innocent civilians.
Hajim Tarouk for instance, a young coconut vendor had his legs shattered by deadly machine gun slugs. He talks in his sleep and sometimes screams in pain during the silent dark nights of an evacuation camp.
Nimij Jalud, 9, and Narik his 7-year-old brother have nightmares about their parents who were killed innocently in a cross fire.
And, Meliza Rigaza, a child of eight, cries, sometimes, all day, strangely for reasons unknown, yet eerily haunting after being saved from a village that was bombed and reduced to nothing.
These are the children of war in Mindanao born innocently among battle-ravaged parents and stripped of their right to exist peacefully.
They are scarred for life not only by hunger and sickness, but more so by painful memories, unknown psychological sufferings, and inhuman traumatic hardships. All of this is brought about by the unending and fast spreading useless battles on the island.
These children present the real faces of the war on the island of Mindanao. Not the kind of children that shutter-hungry photojournalists have portrayed in the media of young girls and boys holding guns and staring death in its face; just faces of scared and terrified youths, fearful, but yearning simply to live in peace.
Children Facing an Uncertain Future
It is difficult to ascertain the real number of children affected by the war in Mindanao; however, what is undeniable is that it is increasing. Many have been left seriously injured or permanently disabled. Many more are left homeless, orphaned, and separated from their parents. An unknown, but growing number suffer from serious psychological and social traumas.
The number of internally displaced people (IDP), particularly children and women, on the island escalated in early 2000 when the government launched an all out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), even as the military campaign pursued other anti-government forces like the splinter faction Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Abu Sayaf, and Pentagon Kidnap-for- Ransom Gang. The IDP have skyrocketed to an unmanageable level of over 800,000.
In 2005, some 70,000 displaced families still lived in evacuation centers and ill-prepared refugee camps. The number decreased in 2007 to some 34,442 people from 6,007 families, cramped in 61 evacuation centers in 10 municipalities and one city of Basilan, Sulu, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, and Marawi City, respectively.
However, this is not the total picture. Overall, the United States Committee for Refugees and the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees say that there are about 300,000 or so IDPs in Mindanao, out of the 900,000 IDPs in the country. Of the total, some 19,600 have sought asylum elsewhere.
These people are wallowing under very poor living conditions. They are plagued by hunger, malnutrition, poor water quality, poor sanitation, malaria, and other deadly diseases. The people of this resource rich island have known more hardships and cruelty than peace throughout most of their history. The endless military clashes have already killed 250,000 people since 1980.
In Mindanao, thousands of IDPs still languish in evacuation camps despite government pronouncements that there are no more such camps,” Fr. Bert Layson, OMI, Pikit Project Immaculate Concepcion said. The evacuees are afraid. They have nothing to go back to in their barangays (villages). Their homes were destroyed. Their farm animals and livestock are either dead or have been sold. The water facilities are damaged. Tall grasses have grown on their farms; they have no money to buy seeds the war has made them penniless and homeless.
Disaster Preparedness and Response: A Pressing Need
It is ironic to note that for the many decades that Mindanao has suffered from war, little has been done, if any effort was made (to establish a united, concerted, and organized program for disaster preparedness and response, especially for war victims), it was made by government line agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGO).
One effort though was made by the international NGO Save the Children (SC). It launched a Disaster Preparedness and Response (DPR) Program for Mindanao, especially for children stating,
These vulnerable part of the society are a segment of the larger civilian population affected by war who warrant special considerations through organized efforts.
The considerations being referred to include measures to ensure children’s rights as called for by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): providing alleviation to those displaced, particularly women, ensuring physical security, facilitating access to food and non-food items and appropriate health care, providing education and skills training, allowing participation of affected groups and development agencies in the execution of projects and allocation of resources.
The rights of children were stressed strongly once by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, who said,
It is sad that infants and young children are often the earliest victims of suffering due to war. They deserve the most immediate assistance of any kind.
Indeed, such reality is shared by SC, which adheres strongly to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In providing such assistance, SC lives by its mission of “working with families to define and solve the problems their children and communities face and utilizing a broad array of strategies to ensure self-sufficiency.”
The SC program aims to support line agencies and a network of non-government organizations in the area of disaster preparedness and responsive activities that eventually will spell out their own development directions.
This is because with so many organizations providing humanitarian services, there is a need for improved coordination of disaster preparedness or emergency relief, since emergency food, shelter, and clothing are only short-term measures. DPR and Mindanao Program seeks to move disaster victims from relief to recovery and rehabilitation as soon as possible.
The program noted that emergency assistance was barely enough and appropriate. It then led efforts that united government line agencies, international NGOs, and local NGOs in providing a more wholesome approach of dealing with the problems faced by internally displaced people, and how they can propel themselves out of helplessness.