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ZAMBOANGA CITY: As war clouds gathered over Basilan,
delegates to the International Women’s Peace and Solidarity
Mission made a desperate call for the reduction of military troops
in the island province.
Mayor Tahira Ismael of Lantawan,
who is also the president of the provincial mayors’ league, in a
meeting with the delegates of the peace mission Saturday called for
greater role to be given to the local governments in the province in
pursuing the suspects of the July 10 incident in which 14 Marines
were killed, 10 of who were beheaded.
About 5,000 troops are taking
part in the hunt for the Abu Sayyaf extremists, allegedly backed by
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels, who took part in the
ambush July 10 in Barangay Ginanta, Al-Barka.
“This is Basilan and we know
who these people are,” Ismael told the delegates as she proposed
that the LGUs reactivate their barangay intelligence system to help
authorities in arresting the suspects.
Gov. Jum Akbar said bringing in
more troops might only complicate the situation.
Maryann Arnado of the Bantay
Ceasefire (Ceasefire Watch), a lawyer and member of the peace
mission, said, “The civilian government must assert the supremacy
of their office in resolving the crisis or else somebody will have
to do it for them.” She called on both the government and the MNLF
to use the mechanisms in the ceasefire agreement in solving the
crisis.
Arnado appealed to the media to
be sensitive in reporting and avoid “drumbeating the war” when
there was none.
She said some journalists seemed
to be leading the armed groups into war by writing reports that are
“misleading the public.”
Mary Ellen Oconnor of New
Zealand, one of the foreign delegates from six countries in Asia
Pacific, expressed concern over the welfare of the civilians should
full-blown hostilities erupt.
Thousands of civilians have fled
their homes for fear of being caught in the crossfire. Some of them
are housed at the evacuation centers while the rest sought refuge in
their relatives in safe areas.
The mission is composed of a
12-member team coming from the countries of East Timor, Thailand,
New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and the Philippines.  --PNA
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