Opinion Editorials, May 2006, To see today's opinion articles, click here: www.aljazeerah.info
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GRP does not deserve an OIC observer status
By Ren Jalaluddin Ropeta
Al-Jazeerah, May 21, 2006
The whole Muslim community welcomes warmly the members of the Organization of Islamic Conference who are currently in Mindanao for a visitorial assessing the Philippine government’s adherence to the 1996 Government of the Republic of the Philippines-Moro National Liberation Front Peace Agreement.
The Philippine government’s appeal for observer status should by all means denied by the OIC. As the number one violator of the human rights of the Moro people, the GRP does not deserve to be recognized as an observer to the OIC as it will be a mockery to justice if that happens.
The Bangsamoro’s human rights situation is marked with the government’s blatant offenses to the GRP-MNLF peace agreement. The Arroyo administration’s war policy in Mindanao has wreaked terror and caused appalling cases and figures of human rights violations against the Moro people.
The OIC hopefully considers the atrocities of the GMA administration against the Moro people. How emboldened can this presidency ever get when it remains fresh in the memory of the Moro people how the police and the military opened fire at hundreds of Tausugs who were protesting the arrest of MNLF leader Prof. Nur Misuari in Jolo, Sulu in February 2002.
In addition, the all-out –war record during Arroyo’s time easily belie its arrogant claim of espousing peace in Mindanao. Topping the list is the military crackdown against Moro civilians in Basilan, Sulu and Zamboanga in 2001 which led to the arbitrary arrest of more than 500 civilians, more than 100 of whom have been sent to the Camp Bagong Diwa prison facility charged with Abu Sayyaf crimes. A related incident, the “extra-judicial killings” of 22 Moro detainees on March 15, 2005 in the Camp Bagong Diwa police assault led by former DILG chief Angelo Reyes, is another atrocity against the Moro people that even the Commission on Human Rights agrees with.
The 2003 AFP-led offensive against the MILF in Pikit, North Cotobato, which spread all over Maguindano, Lanao Del Sur, Sulu and displaced more than 400,000 people exemplify the militarist approach of the Arroyo government in dealing with the peace situation in Mindanao.
The prospect of peace in Mindanao remains shadowed with threats of lingering war and state-perpetrated military offensives. The Arroyo government ought to be ashamed of its avowals to the OIC and the international community that it has faithfully adhered the to peace agreement when for majority of the Moro people, the Arroyo government has become the embodiment of unjust war.
REN JALALUDDIN ROPETA Vice Chairperson, Moro-Christian Peoples Alliance (MCPA) Brgy. Central Diliman Q.C. mcpaphils@yahoo.com
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04). | ||
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |