Stop the violence to continue peace process, says missionary in Mindanao
Manila (AsiaNews) "We are trying to put the government in contact with the rebels to stop the violent escalation taking place in Jolo," Fr Angelo Calvo told AsiaNews. FatherCalvo is Claretian missionary from Spain in Zamboanga, in the south of the Philippines.
For the past five days fighting has been raging on Jolo Island in the Sulu Archipelago (southern Mindanao) between the rebels of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and government troops. So far reports speak of 90 dead30 soldiers and 60 rebelsas the government is sending an additional 2,000 soldiers to the area.
More than 7,000 civilians have fled to the city of Jolo from surrounding rural areas to escape the violence.
Father Calvo chairs 'PAZ' (Peace Advocates Zamboanga), a group involved in peace-making in the area, and is a member of 'Peace Weavers', an inter-faith dialogue group operating on Mindanao Island.
The Spanish clergyman is in touch with the Filipino Minister in charge of the peace process and with a Peace Weaver who is also brother-in-law to Nur Misuari, the MNLF's leader currently in prison, in order to find ways to stop this week's outbreak of fighting.
"The violence was set off when Filipino anti-terrorism units killed a few children, teenagers and women in an operation against the Abu Sayyaf group (which is linked to al-Qaeda)," Father Calvo said. "The MNLF then retaliated."
"For two years, Jolo was calm," Father Calvo explained. "For this reason, we want both parties o start talking to one another again so that the situation doesn't get out of hand".
A local ulema, Ulka Ulama, is also concerned about the violent turn of events.
"The situation is very tense. The authorities must stop the violence because it might become an all-out war".
"Fighting terrorism without harming civilians is difficult, but the army must face this difficulty," Father Calvo said. "Otherwise the MNLF will rise up at every small provocation. For this reason, we asked Congress to fight terrorism using the law and not only the gun."
"Violence," the missionary noted, "is in danger of undermining all the efforts at peace-making currently underway".
The MNLF was founded in the 1960s to fight for the independence of the predominantly Muslim island of Mindanao.
In 1978 some MNLF elements broke away to found the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a group that did not accept the 1996 peace deal with the government which set up an autonomous government for the area, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or ARMM.
In recent days, MILF said it would continue peace talks with Manila under the good offices of some of the Philippines' neighbours like Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Although a party to the 1996 agreement, the MNLF under Misuari renewed its guerrilla war against the army and Misuari himself was arrested in 2001.
In recent years, some MNLF leaders have joined Abu Sayyaf in the fight to set up an Islamic state in the southern Philippines. (LF)
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25/08/2020 11:32
