Protest against unjust Peace Accord in the Philippines
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April 2006: more than 700 indigenous Téduray and Lambangian march against the robbery of their lands and forests in the name of peace.
Photo Geert van Kesteren
Traditional territory of the Teduray and Lambangian people is being traded away in an unjust peace accord in the Philippines. They now seek international support for their case.
In 1996 the Government of the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) reached a Peace Accord in western Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines. After decades of violent conflict war was about to end so it seemed, and indigenous peoples in the area hoped that peace was finally to return to their lives and communities. But things turned out quite differently. A former MNLF-commander had been given a concession to log 5.500 hectares of forest in the indigenous areas, in exchange for dropping arms.
A massive logging operation started in 2002, and continues until today. The Téduray and Lambangian inhabiting the area had not become beneficiaries, but victims of an unjust peace accord.
A dark scenario is unfolding, as ten years later new peace negotiations are going on. This time between the government and a faction of MNLF that did not accept the earlier accord and: the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front).
At stake for the latter are ancestral domain, self-governance and access to natural resources. None of the indigenous peoples in the territories claimed by MILF have been invited to the negotiation table, despite the fact that many of them have pending land claims themselves. Their very existence is, again, just ignored.
The Téduray and Lambangian organised a public protest in April 2006, in an ultimate attempt to change the course of events. More than 700 people defied heat, cold and fatigue and marched almost 100 kilometres through the denuded hills and remains of their ancestral forests. The march was to show the world the detrimental result of peace negotiations in which not all parties are recognised as stakeholder, and to grasp their last hope: international pressure. This should lead to a complete stop of the logging, and an invitation to the new peace negotiations.
Support the cause of the Téduray and Lambangian by signing the petition. Please click here
