Meranaws condemn alleged atrocities by Australian peace contingent in Afghanistan

MARAWI CITY — Residents have protested atrocities reportedly of members of Australian peace contingent forces against Afghan civilians.

A letter to the United Nations signed Tuesday by resident-protesters said: “In our sincere intent and purpose to help end the violence against innocent civilians, including women, children and youth in that country (Afghanistan) in the hands of few racist elements among converging peace contingent forces from several countries, we appeal to the Office of the UN Secretary-General to step-in and help resolve the issue.”

Carl Lacoto Ma-amor, convener of the series consultation with residents, said local organizations of Maranao Muslim professionals have expressed “disappointment and condemnation of alleged atrocities reported of the Australian Peace Contingent of the Allied Forces in Afghanistan” in their letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres dated December 18.

Abuses told of the Australian soldiers in Afghanistan were reported in international media which stated “Australia’s elite special forces ‘unlawfully killed 39 civilians, including summary executions as part of initiation rituals, according to evidence in a searing military inquiry now being referred to a special war crimes prosecutor.”    

Ma-amor said the protesters have opted to air their sincere concerns on global peace before the UN, or they might just be tagged as sympathizers of people whose country is deemed the seedbed of extremism in the 1990’s.

“It is in this premise and, above all, the suffering of the people in that part of the world that we are appealing to the Office of the UN Secretary General to effect, in the soonest possible time, the intervention of the UN Department of Political Affairs as the most valuable contribution of the international community to help end all forms of inhuman treatment of innocent lives in Afghanistan,” Ma-amor said.  

A former employee of Malacanang, Ma-amor said: “Currently, we are on a working cooperation for this peace consultation with various organizations in support to the Peace Process in the Southern Philippines, just as the Australian Aid Programme and the UN Development Organizations are very much a part of this multi-pronged endeavour.”

Ma-amor said he had been among dozens of employees retrenched in Malacanang last year due to an on-going bureaucratic streamlining as prescribed by Executive Order 149.

But he said he did not take that against President Duterte, and has in fact, remained a member of the Kilusang Pagbabago (KP), one of the groups that emerged pro-Duterte in the 2016 Presidential Elections.

“There’s nothing personal; nothing politics that I lost my job under President Duterte. But I also challenge human rights advocates among his critics to also stand up for the women and children of Afghanistan and Palestine.”

“Otherwise, they are no different from an Opposition politician throwing mud at the President at the expense of the ICC (International Criminal Court of the UN).

Asked why the Maranao Muslim protesters did not also file their complaint before the ICC, as did some local human rights groups for those killed in the anti-illegal drugs campaign of the Duterte administration, Ma-amor said: “the UN Department of Political Affairs is the appropriate venue for the international body to effectively acquire jurisdiction over the issue and the parties concerned.”

It can be recalled that President Duterte, a lawyer, has openly questioned the ICC jurisdiction over the country in which the Judiciary is fully functional.

Ma-amor said the Mr. Duterte was right. “Besides, any ICC decision, I believe, would be appealable to higher UN bodies which may also probe on the human rights advocacy records of the complainants, like their known stand, if any, on human rights issues elsewhere.” Nash B. Maulana