The never ending Basilan war: who started it?
Military officials and their political superiors should resist the temptation of blindly lashing out at the secessionist rebels who ambushed a Marine patrol and then beheaded the fatalities on the government side.AFP spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro yesterday said security forces are being pre-positioned to undertake "punitive action" against the rebels. This was a sharp departure from AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon’s statement three days ago that the military would not engage in actions that would jeopardize peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The turnaround, we surmise, came after Gloria Arroyo ordered the AFP to get the "savages."
Beheading fallen enemies is a barbaric act. The MILF should be held to account for this gruesome violation of the rules of war. But striking against the rebels in retribution, with the high probability of inflicting "collateral damage" (to borrow a Vietnam War euphemism made fashionable by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez) on non-combatants, is not the way to even up the score.
We cringe at hearing the phrase "punitive action" from the AFP spokesman. We are almost a 100 years removed from the "punitive expeditions" mounted by Jack Pershing against communities around Lake Lanao in response to acts of "Moro treachery," mostly ambuscades directed at small American patrols and isolated outposts.
Communities were torched. Crops were destroyed. Residents were driven away from their homes. After the punishment, American soldiers would pull back to their encampments. Residents would return to bury their dead, re-thatch their nipa huts and poke holes with their dibbles sticks in the ground for their corn and rice seeds.
Let’s build a case before the joint government-MILF committee on cessation of hostilities. Let’s harness the peace monitors led by a Malaysian general to investigate how the clash started in the first place.
The AFP said the Marines were ambushed on their way home after an operation aimed at checking reports kidnapped Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi had been taken to Basilan by his abductors. The reports filed by a new team of ABS-CBN, however, showed the Marine unit with which the team was "embedded" was on its way to its objective when it was met by gunfire.
Perhaps this was a different unit from the one to which the beheaded Marines belonged. But the question that begs for an answer is why the Marines were tramping on territory which the MILF officials said was clearly identified as theirs on truce maps.
We are not quite sold to the wisdom of recognizing territories as MILF enclaves under the current truce. There is only one Republic after all which holds legitimate sway over these islands.
But the fact is there is such an agreement where government forces are barred from entering so-called MILF territories. The agreement allows for pursuit by security forces of "lawless" elements. It is required, however, that government notify the MILF of planned incursions, precisely to prevent misunderstanding that could lead to shooting on the ground.
There is more to this latest fighting in Basilan than the viciousness and barbarity of war. We should look into the how and why the clash took place and who provoked and started it.
