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The Newsletter
2nd Quarter 2000

Mindanao is Bleeding
Statements of Peace

Unleashing the Dogs of War
by Said Sadain, Jr.

The Abuja Islamic Education Trust
Islam Through E-Mail

What is Shariah?

Poetry
written by
Raul Moldez
Rene Bernales

CAMPEACE2000

Essays
written by
Fr. Eliseo Mercado, Jr.
Mehol Sadain
Said Sadain, Jr.

Featured Links

Growth Mindanao
The other faces of Mindanao

Manila Moods Online
Rasheed Abou-Alsamh, a Saudi-American journalist goes online with his Arab News column on everything Filipino

Virtual Bugs
Explore the world of bugs, the ones that actually bite

Innovative Ideas Design
Some of Angel's artworks grace this issue. Visit her site too.

Archives
More Bugs & Bytes

The book BUGS & BYTES, In Bigger Prints, is now available at National Book Store outlets in MetroManila and the UP Press Bookshop in UP Diliman, Quezon City.

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'There is no glory ....'

[Press Release from the Office of Rep. Wigberto Tanada
10 May 2000]

The government and MILF should go  back to the negotiating table -- Tañada 

Former Senator and now Quezon Rep. Wigberto Tañada urged the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to "cease all military offensives and exhaust all peaceful means" to resolve the armed conflict.

"There is no glory, no real victory in an all-out war that does not distinguish between military objectives and the civilian population. Trying to defeat a rebellion primarily through military means will only generate greater human rights violations and spur resistance from those who feel crushed by the weight of the military boot," Tañada said in the First Regional Consultation on the Philippine Human Rights Draft Declaration in Baguio City yesterday. He is the chairman of the Philippine Working Group for an Asean Human Rights Mechanism.

On the Abu Sayyaf, Tañada said, "There can be no justification, no excuse ever for the barbarity of the Abu Sayyaf which has proven itself as a bandit gang masquerading as a political rebel group."

He stressed: "The Abu Sayyaf should definitely be dealt the full force of the law once the two separate sets of hostages in their clutches are released." 

On the other hand, the strategy of "total war [against the MILF] has not proved successful in stamping out insurgency under the past administrations."

"It would be dreadfully wrong for the national government to apply the military solution to the conflict in Mindanao to the exclusion of political options," he said. 

Citing the 150,000 civilians displaced in armed conflict between the government and the MILF rebels, Tañada said a way out must be found to break out of this arena of suffering and bloodshed.

"The fate of the country hangs on the balance. We choose the military option and we shall irretrievably sink in the abyss of war. We take up the challenge of peace and we can shift the conflict back to the negotiating table and stop the slide of the country into deepening armed conflict," he said.

"I can only hope that we, as a civilized people, realizing that there are no victors in war, only casualties, will decide in favor of peace," he added.

He cited a statement of the late Jose Diokno, one of the country's foremost human-rights advocates: "Because militarization is inherently repressive, it breeds dissent and resistance. Militarization is a self-fulfilling prophecy: it creates the very conditions which `justify' it."

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