News

Amid scars from sectarian wars, peace emerges in troubled Mindanao region

Zamboanga, May 15 (EFE/EPA).- Rashid Ganih, a 51-year-old Filipino, gets up every day at dawn, rides in the boat moored at the door of his house and goes fishing or growing algae among the mangroves from Simariki, home for four centuries to the Muslim Sama-bangingi tribe in the southern Philippines."When there was no fighting here, our lives were ok, we were very safe here. But when the fighting started, chaos happened, we experienced bad things, there was trauma. After the fighting it took 18 months before we could return to (Simariki)," said Community Leader Ganih on the morning of Sep. 9, 2013 when the Siege of Zamboanga began, a prosperous and multi-ethnic city to which Simariki belongs, in the troubled Muslim region of Mindanao.Some 400 troops from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a separatist Muslim rebel group, attacked the city and kidnapped some 200 civilians. Three weeks of hard fighting resulted in 200 dead, 110,000 displaced by violence and the destruction of 10,000 homes, including those of Simariki. (Camera: ROLEX DELA PENA). FOOTAGE SHOWS ZAMBOANGA , PHILIPPINES. SOUNDBITES: RASHID GANIH, LEADER OF THE SIMARIKI COMMUNITY (IN TAGALOG), ANGEL CALVO, SPANISH PRIEST (IN SPANISH), TIMUOY GUINLAC, LEADER IN LABUAN (IN ENGLISH) AND DOCTOR SADAIN URAO (IN ENGLISH)TRANSLATIONS:RASHID GANIH, LEADER OF THE SIMARIKI COMMUNITY (IN TAGALOG) (00:00:18-00:01:10) "We heard gunshots at four in the morning. We left and this area was full of FMLN fighters. We had to flee our homes and it took 18 months for us to return." ANGEL CALVO, SPANISH PRIEST (IN SPANISH) (00:01:20-00:02:04) "I was in Bacilan during the Martial law, we came with a new dream of creating a new mission after the council, and we were surprised by the violence of the rise of the FMLN that devastated almost 70 percent of Bacilan and we had to attend to refugees who were coming to all schools, except ours."