A Long, Soggy Wait for Real Peace on Mindanao

By Carlos H. Conde

(This article first appeared in the January 7, 2004, issue of The International Herald Tribune.)

PAGALUNGAN, Philippines — Ten months ago, Tarhata Abdul and 31 of her relatives traveled through mountains and marshes for two days to escape the fighting between Muslim rebels and government troops in the southern Philippines. They settled in this town in Mindanao, in a compound along the highway with a big red house.

“It seemed like the natural thing to do, to come to this house,” Abdul, 29, said, explaining why she, her family and fellow villagers sought refuge in there. The house is owned by a royal clan that has been ruling this part of Mindanao for generations. In past conflicts, displaced Muslims were drawn to the house, seeking refuge in its lush surroundings, taking comfort in the belief that the name of those who owned the house would protect them.

Since the government’s major offensive against the rebels belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front started in 2000, hundreds of thousands of Filipino Muslims have been displaced. Although most have returned to their homes and lands, there are still thousands of them in refugee camps such as the one here, their numbers swelling each time the government conducts more offensives against the rebels.

There are still a few hundred refugees in this camp affected by the 2000 war, but the majority of the 2,000 refugees were victims of the war in February last year, displaced in a conflict that has been going on since the late 1960’s.

The peace process between the government and the rebels, which the refugees had hoped would pave the way for their return to their homes, has barely made progress. The cease-fire agreements signed by both sides are breached so often that the refugee camps have never run out of people since the peace talks began in 1997.

In this compound, most of the refugees live in huts made of bamboo and covered with the ubiquitous blue tarp and coconut fronds. When it rains, and it had been raining in this part of the country for days on end in December, the sight becomes even more pitiable and depressing: the pathways that crisscross the compound turn to muck. Many of the children are sick and malnourished.

The red house, once a symbol of power and prestige in this town, has been reduced to a decaying embodiment of everything that has gone wrong for the Muslim minority in Mindanao: the war, the displacement, the hunger, the grief.

Solving the 30-year-old war in Mindanao is crucial to the country’s security and economy. The island, the second-largest in the Philippines, is home to about 20 million of the country’s 80 million people; 20 percent of Mindanao’s population is Muslim. More than half of the country’s key agricultural produce such as corn, coconut, banana and pineapple come from the island. It is also home to many large multinational companies.

Despite this bounty, however, Mindanao has most of the Philippines’ poorest provinces. It has the highest poverty rate and infant mortality rate, and the lowest literacy rate. And no other place in the Philippines has seen so much conflict and bloodshed.

Foreign aid has been offered for both sides to conclude the peace process.

The Bush administration, through the U.S. Institute of Peace, a government-funded research organization based in Washington, has agreed to play an observer role in the talks. The U.S. also pledged $30 million in development assistance for Mindanao after the signing of a peace agreement.

Aside from existing aid from the United Nations, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the European Union, Japan, Canada and Australia, various donors have also pledged $2 billion in assistance to the Philippines next year, according to the World Bank. Almost a quarter of that amount will go to Mindanao, but only after the peace process is concluded.

After the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Mindanao became the so-called second front of the war against terrorism because of the presence of such groups as Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, the group thought to be behind the Bali bombing. Since last year, U.S. servicemen have been stationed in Mindanao to help train Philippine soldiers hunt down terrorists.