MILF and the peace process, 2
VIDEO clips from cell phone cameras on the encounter last Jan. 25, 2015 between elements of the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Muslim separatist groups in Mamasapano, Maguindanao have been posted on YouTube a few days before the clash. One video clip that has gone viral showed the shooting at close range of a wounded policeman, one of the 44 SAF members who died in the clash.
The video clips actually showed separate scenes in the Mamasapano clash. One clip showed a group of Muslim rebels talking leisurely while firing at the cornfield where some of the SAF elements were positioned. Another clip showed rebels, I don't know if it was from the same group, moving towards the SAF position while firing and shouting Allahu Akbar!
Then there was that video clip showing the killing of the wounded policeman and rebels taking away their firearms, ammunition and even the uniforms. Another clip showed people, obviously residents of the area, surveying the site of the fighting where bodies were sprawled everywhere.
That video clip showing the killing of the wounded policeman depicted what another rebel group termed as the “cleaning” phase of an ambush or clash. In this phase, the victorious armed group gathers the firearms and other war equipment and paraphernalia of the “enemy” before leaving or fleeing. This is still a dangerous phase because there could be “enemies” who are still alive and fire at the “cleaners.”
Rebels do not usually follow war protocols, like taking care of the wounded enemy. Killing the wounded or making sure that the “enemy” could no longer fire at the “cleaners” is often done. The video clips didn't show that the “cleaners” mutilated the bodies of the SAF troopers.
In the Mamasapano incident, it was not only the MILF that battled the SAF elements but also the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), which is opposed to the peace talks and, per the military, private armed groups. Both the MILF and BIFF admitted they took away the firearms and other war paraphernalia of the “Fallen 44,” meaning that any of their fighters could have been the one who killed the wounded policeman.
Whatever the motive of those who posted the video clips was, we do not know. If it was rebel propaganda, then it didn't serve its purpose because what they are getting instead is widespread condemnation. If it was intended to scuttle the peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) then it succeeded in the sense that it has dented the peace process.
I share the widespread revulsion over the shooting of the wounded policeman. It wasn't a civilized or Christian act. But having said that, I would also like people to consider that scene's context: war. In a way, it is an indictment of the concept of all-out war that some sectors are pushing. War is violent and atrocities are bound to be perpetrated by the protagonists in its pursuit.
On this, I would refer the readers to the war classic “Platoon” directed by Oliver Stone, a veteran of the war that the United States waged in Vietnam in the ‘60s and the ‘70s. It showed the descent to the depths of innocent youths sent to war. Some of them ended up not only brutalizing civilians but also even killing their comrades in arms.
To paraphrase the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong: War is not a dinner party or writing an essay, or painting a picture or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous.
Indeed, war is always brutal, gruesome even. That's why I prefer peace.
More on this tomorrow.