“The reports of both the PNP Board of Inquiry and the Senate on
the Mamasapano carnage sidetracked the seven civilian casualties during the
Mamasapano carnage and the hundreds of residents who were displaced during the
operation. They, too, were victims of the US-Aquino’s botched Oplan
Wolverine/Exodus. They, too, should figure in in BS Aquino’s accountability,”
said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.
“The reports of both the PNP Board of Inquiry and the Senate on
the Mamasapano carnage sidetracked the seven civilian casualties during the
Mamasapano carnage and the hundreds of residents who were displaced during the
operation. They, too, were victims of the US-Aquino’s botched Oplan
Wolverine/Exodus. They, too, should figure in in BS Aquino’s accountability,”
said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.
From the initial 1,500 residents who fled their homes in the
aftermath of the Mamasapano botched operation, the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao’s Humanitarian Emergency Action and Response Team (ARMM-HEART) now counts at least 72,585 persons displaced from
the 11 municipalities where Aquino’s follow-up operations, tagged as all-out
war, is going on since February 25. Most of them left their homes and are now cramped
in evacuation centers —sick, hungry, and traumatized.
The findings of the peace mission conducted by the People’s Council
for National Unity, Reforms and Peace (PCNURP) said a 42 year old, 3-month pregnant mother with 10
children “expressed uncertainty of life if the war continues.” The woman said “one
of her children collapsed in the middle of the volley of fires because of fear
and could not talk anymore.”
Boyong Unggala, a 36-year-old farmer from Brgy. Madia, was hit by a stray bullet
on his forehead while sitting in the balcony. The military strafed the house
where he was temporarily staying. Farhannah
Abdulkahar, 25, and a resident of Brgy. Dapiawan, Datu Saudi, also evacuated
when their houses was indiscriminately fired. Her left leg was hit by stray
bullet.
“For almost two months now, the residents in Mamasapano and the
neighboring communities are on the run to save their lives as the military
bombarded their communities. But their condition in the evacuation centers is
not much different,” said Palabay. She cited the peace mission’s report that
even those who participated in the peace mission at Brgy. Dapiawan experienced
the “gun fires and loud explosions from mortar shelling” on March 11.
“Another team assigned in Brgy. Madia was alarmed when during the
psychosocial activity for children and adults and documentation, three 6×6
trucks loaded with elements of the 8th Mechanized Battalion and two military
tanks arrived in an open space beside the barangay hall near the evacuation
center and without any notice to the civilians and barangay officials present
in the area, immediately mounted two 81mm mortars,” the peace mission report
stated.
Palabay said, “Aquino’s all-out war should be immediately stopped.
It is nothing but a diversionary and face-saving tactic and does not help in ferreting
out the truth on the Mamasapano fiasco. It has only added up to Aquino’s dismal
human rights record as numerous human rights violations were documented by the
peace mission.”
Among those documented cases include forced evacuation and divestment of properties due to indiscriminate
firing, shelling of mortar (81mm & 105mm howitzer) and aerial bombing by
OV10 Bronco planes; destruction of
properties; frustrated extra judicial
killings; harassment and
intimidation of civilians; military encampment in public and religious structures. The
military operation has also disrupted the classes of pupils and students in the
communities.
The peace mission was held on March 10-13 through the initiative
of the Suara Bangsamoro and Kawagib Moro Human Rights Alliance with the findings
of the People’s
Council for National Unity, Reforms and Peace (PCNURP).