Stopping the bloodshed in Mindanao
Dozens are believed to have been killed as govern-ment troops and Muslim extremists clashed in a town in Basilan. The military described the fighting as a close-quarter battle the intensity of which usually results in high casualties. At least 16 of the dead were government soldiers, and four of them were officers.The hostilities flared after several tense weeks of eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation in Basilan between government forces and Abu Sayyaf fighters believed to be reinforced by Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas. The military had been holding back to allow the police to serve warrants on Abu Sayyaf and MILF members suspected of having killed and beheaded 10 Marines early last month. As expected the suspects could not be found, much less arrested, and the police stepped aside for the assault to begin.
There is no doubt the soldiers were only too eager to engage the enemy and avenge the mutilation of their comrades, hence the fierceness of the battle. The insurgents were finally forced out of their camp, but not before a helicopter gunship providing air support for the troops was brought down by ground fire and one of its pilots killed.
The battle in Basilan will not be a quick one. We expect hostilities to be drawn-out, and casualties to be high. As usual the biggest victims will be the civilians, many of whom have fled their homes ahead of the fighting. The President had reminded the military to keep collateral damage to a minimum, but that is easier said than done; bullets and bombs do not discriminate.
There is no belaboring the justification for the offensive in Basilan. An atrocity has been committed; the perpetrators must be punished. The overriding concern, however, is that the fighting in Basilan could spread to other flashpoints in Mindanao. In Sulu the Armed Forces is already hunting down another group of Abu Sayyaf who killed about two dozen soldiers in two ambuscades. That offensive would definitely be stepped up.
The Abu Sayyaf has time and against shown its capacity to strike somewhere else whenever its forces are pinned down in a particular area. Following that strategy the extremists will most likely launch terrorist attacks in Zamboanga City, General Santos or even Davao City to try to ease the pressure on its beleaguered fighters in Basilan and Sulu.
Containing the conflict within the two fronts should be foremost in the minds of our generals. In the meantime civilian authorities must explore new directions to bring peace to Mindanao.
Over the weekend, Speaker Jose de Venecia proposed an ambitious plan to spur economic growth in Mindanao over a five-year period. Under the Speaker’s “mini-Marshall Plan,” the government would ask the US, Australia, Japan and other countries with a stake in the Mindanao to put up a $1-billion fund to build roads, bridges, schools and hospitals. The government itself would raise $500 million as a counterpart fund.
It’s an ambitious project, but at this point, any initiative to stop the bloodshed in Mindanao is worth looking into.
