ICRC to parties in conflictand Respect IHL

COTABATO CITY — Communications representatives of the International Committee on the Red Cross (ICRC) said they wanted groups in conflict in thePhilippines to understand the rights and welfare of people displaced by hostilities.In a dialogue with The Mindanao Cross on Thursday afternoon, Wolde Gabriel Saugeron, the French-Ethiopian international communication coordinator of the ICRC, said the humanitarian organization’s continuing dialogue with parties in conflict has been fruitful with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which designated people knowledgeable of the Sharia (Islamic Law) of armed conflict to help educate their own ranks.Saugeron said the University of the Philippines-Institute of Islamic Studies (UP-IIS) was helping ICRC in the Philippines develop educational module from applicable provisions of the Geneva Conventions Humanitarian Welfare, which are harmonized with Sharia (Islamic law) on the rights and protection of people displaced by armed conflict.Lany de la Cruz, ICRC communication officer, said the booklets of the localized module will be printed in selected Moro dialects, mainly, Taosug, Maguindanao, Maranao, and Yakan.De la Cruz said the UP-IIS-drafted manuscript of the locally translated provisions of the Geneva Conventions on Humanitarian Welfare has been presented for critiquing and inputs to teams of learned Muslims, separately designated for the purpose by the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).Saugeron said the local ICRC was planning to reach out to as broadly as those areas occupied or are influenced by Abu Sayyaf in Basilan and Sulu, and by the Mauti Group in Butig, Lanao del Sur.Lanao del Sur Governor Mamintal Adiong Jr. said 1,517 individuals or 252 families have been displaced from Barangays Colayan, Samer, Bayabao, Poctan, Raya Timbab, Sandab and Rangayan—all in Butig, from renewed clashes between government forces and the Maute group, which is reportedly influenced by the Daesh or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis). Meanwhile, ARMM Vice Governor Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman was in war-torn Butig, Lanao Sur, not only to lead the region’s humanitarian mission, but to help correct instigations attributed to the extremist group that by Islam, (Muslims should hate and) kill the unbelievers, the Christians.”Lucman promptly clarified this not only for the non-Muslims, but also for the local Muslims, who might fall into the same teaching found written on the board of the Maute group’s planning room in Butig. Dr. Ameur Zemmali, ICRC forum adviser at the 2002 Convention on Humanitarian Law and Islam,” concurred in to Universal Islam’s doctrines that predate IHL (International Humanitarian Law),” which was presented by the Syrian scholar, Dr. Wahbeh Al-Zuhili, who is considered an authority on Islamic law. Lucman said scholars have figured out that, for instance, that Prophet Muhammad in 628 A.D. granted the first Muslim government’s (i.e. based in Madina) Charter of Privileges to the Christian leaders of St. Catherine Monastery in Mt. Sinai. The law vastly covers human rights, including protection of Christians, freedom of worship and movement, freedom to appoint their own judges and to own and maintain their property, exemption from military service, and the right to protection in war.The law that Muhammad established in Age of Ignorance has been translated to several languages, including English, thusand This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them. The provisions were made of short paragraphsand 1) No compulsion is to be on them 2) Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries 3) No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses 4) Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate 5) No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight.
6) The Muslims are to fight for them 7) If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray
8) Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants and 9) No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world). Nash B. Maulana