War scarred kids send GMA Christmas greetings
Jona, Lyn, Mayrie, Jay-Ar and Lisa are not wishing for toys or clothes this Christmas.
They just want to return to their homes and to the lives they had before they were displaced by military operations in their communities.
Along with other internally displaced children, they urged President Arroyo to grant their Christmas wish written in a huge Christmas card they intend to send to Malacañang this week.
Included in their wish list are the pullout of troops from their communities; locating their missing or arrested relatives who have been accused of being communist rebels; and imposition of sanctions on abusive soldiers.
According to Esmeralda Macaspac, executive director of the Children’s
Macaspac said most of the children were from Sulu and Basilan, where government troops are pursuing the Abu Sayyaf extremists and other armed criminal groups.
Five children have been killed this year in what the military called legitimate combat operations, where the victims were tagged as child combatants.
The 100,000 victims this year alone surpasses the annual average in the past five years, when 215,000 child victims of internal displacement were recorded in the five-year period from 2001 to 2005.
Macaspac said children are the first to be affected in congested evacuation camps after being forced to abandon their homes because of intensive military operations.
“Apart from health hazards in evacuation centers, their daily activities like schooling and play are disrupted. It is high time that this government looks into the plight of internally displaced families and once and for all address the root causes of displacement,” she said.
Sixteen-year-old Jona, a member of the Manobo tribe, said her family was displaced because of a military operation in Surigao del Sur last Nov. 1.
Jona claimed she could no longer go to school, located just a few kilometers from the evacuation center where her family stays.
She added the evacuation center is so congested many of them aree getting sick.
While receiving relief goods, Jona said her family still has not gotten accustomed to the rough accommodations.
“We’re not used to this kind of living,” she said. “We’re not used to being given dole-outs. We survive through our own work, by tilling our land, which can’t go back to as we’ve been warned that we might be mistaken for (communist) rebels.”
Jona recalled an incident when soldiers guarding the evacuation center passed the time by watching an adult movie, even with children around.
Fifteen-year-old Lisa, for her part, shared her bitter experience as her father and brother were allegedly snatched by the military last June in Quezon. She said the experience has traumatized her. “Instead of protecting us these people (soldiers) are the ones doing things that scare us children,” she said.
Fifteen-year-old Mayrie had a similar experience when he lost his father and grandfather, who were among the inmates killed during the controversial Bicutan siege in 2006.
As for 16-year-old Lyn of Cagayan Valley, she saw her friend shot in the leg by a soldier after they were accused of being child soldiers of the communist New People’s Army (NPA).
Alphonse Rivera, spokesman of the Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns, said what these children need is not just a declaration of a ceasefire.
“The ceasefire declared by the military is not enough. Their mere presence is traumatic enough, especially for the direct victims,” Rivera said.
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