Youth call for peace in Iraq, Maguindanao

President Arroyo should allocate sufficient aid to Filipinos in conflict-torn areas in Mindanao before even considering sending humanitarian and peacekeeping teams to Iraq, an umbrella organization of youth groups and student councils nationwide said yesterday.

"Over 40,000 people are now in refugee camps in Pikit, Cotabato and 36 children among them have already died due to the unsanitary and crammed conditions in these camps. We urge government to send sufficient aid to our own people in Mindanao before it allocates more public resources to a war we never wanted and needed in the first place," the Student Advocacy for Government Accountability (SAGA) said in a statement.

The youth alliance also urged Malacañang to pin down those responsible for the recent bombings in Davao City, since these incidents could be used by "unscrupulous and militaristic elements" to argue for stepping up the war in Mindanao.

"War is not the solution to such terror-laden tactics. Development and people’s cooperation and vigilance are. The government should use all the resources at its disposal to investigate this matter fully and to help the victims, before any accusations are thrown in any direction," it said.

The youth alliance also said that while the people of Iraq need all the assistance they can get, the best support that Filipinos can give them is in the form of "a categorical rejection of the US-led war effort."

It urged the government to show the Filipinos’ support for their Muslim brothers by supporting calls by the Vatican and the League of Arab Nations for an immediate end to the war.

"The war in Iraq need not have been waged. The people of Iraq are not our enemies and we have faith in their desire and capacity to liberate themselves if need be. We deplore dictators but foreign intervention in the guise of a war for democracy is not the solution," the youth alliance said.

SAGA is composed of student leaders from prominent universities and colleges across the country and out-of-school youths.