| MCC is assisting families
displaced by recent fighting in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines.
Letter expressing concern
regarding the deployment of U.S. troops to the Philippines.
Emergency aid
Two MCC workers are helping to distribute emergency aid in North
Cotabato province, southern Philippines. Fighting between the Philippine
military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a separatist
group, erupted mid-February in North Cotabato on the island of Mindanao.
The groups had signed a cease-fire in 2001, and the current conflict
came just weeks before a scheduled round of peace talks.
The fighting has displaced some 80,000 civilians in recent weeks.
MCC is providing $22,900 Cdn./$15,000 U.S. for emergency food for
displaced families. Four MCC partner organizations have purchased
local food and are handling distribution to displaced people in
evacuation centers and those who are caring for displaced families.
Tensions have long simmered in Mindanao, home to several Muslim-majority
communities in the Christian-dominated (or -majority) Philippines.
Distributing relief supplies
MCC Philippines workers Andrea Beck and Luke Schrock-Hurst have
helped distribute food in North Cotabato.
Beck, of Grantham, Pa., works with Initiatives for International
Dialogue (IID) in Davao City, Mindanao. On Feb. 16 she joined a
group of IID workers who carried relief supplies to the North Cotabato
town of Pikit.
Beck reports, "A local priest briefed us about the situation.
There are 39,000 evacuees in Pikit. Some (of the displaced people)
say they were ordered by the military to leave their homes, while
others sensed the impending war because of massive military build-up
and hurriedly evacuated.
"The fighting nearby had stopped by the time we arrived, mainly
because the Philippine army has taken control of the area. Parish
workers don't expect the evacuees to return to their homes any time
soon."
Andrea Beck's full report
Luke Schrock-Hurst, MCC Philippines co-representative, visited
Cotabato with Filipino workers from BALAY, an MCC-supported organization.
BALAY is distributing supplemental food to displaced children and
coordinating children's activities at the evacuation centers.
Civilians get caught in the middle
"The reality of war is that civilians get caught in the middle,"
Schrock-Hurst says. Area residents "have been displaced by
war four times now in the last six years" by military and rebel
offensives. Most families who fled their homes in Cotabato are not
ready to return home, suspecting the fighting will continue, he
said.
Power has gone out from time to time, because electrical towers
have been targeted.
"The Bush administration is preparing military exercises for
the islands south of Mindanao, supposedly to help wipe out Al Qaeda-linked
terrorist groups," Schrock-Hurst writes. "The reality
is that many thousands of families in Mindanao will experience much
trauma and violence in their lives."
The United States is considering sending 1,700 troops to the nearby
island of Jolo to help the Philippine military fight rebels from
another separatist group, Abu Sayyaf. Last year 1,300 U.S. soldiers
were sent to Mindanao to help train the Philippine military. The
U.S. military committed massacres in Jolo during the early 20th
century.
The presence of U.S. soldiers in the Philippines is controversial.
The United States vacated large military bases in the Philippines
in 1992, ending centuries of foreign military presence there. The
current Philippine constitution limits the activities of foreign
troops on Philippine soil. |
