சாதிபேதமற்ற முஸ்லீம் ஜாதிகள் மோதியதில் 57 பேர் படுகொலை

பிலிப்பைன்ஸில் பல முஸ்லீம் ஜாதிகள் இருக்கின்றன. ஒன்றை ஒன்று கொலைவெறியோடுதான் பார்க்கும்.

ஒரு முஸ்லீம் ஜாதி மீது இன்னொரு முஸ்லீம் ஜாதி தாக்கியதில் 57 பேர் கொல்லப்பட்டிருக்கிறார்கள். எல்லாம் கோடாரி, கத்தி என்றுதான் தாக்குதல்.

சமத்துவ இஸ்லாம்!

ஏமாறாதே ஏமாற்றாதே!

Homicidal vendettas integral to Filipino politics
The massacre of at least 22 people in the southern Philippines has exposed a brutal culture of guns, greed and money that has poisoned the nation's political system for decades.

By Jason Gutierrez in Manila
Published: 9:57AM GMT 24 Nov 2009

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The murders in the southern province of Maguindanao on Monday are thought to have beeny related to next year's national elections, when posts from village chiefs to the president will be up for grabs.

"This explosion of violence arises whenever there is an election," said Samira Gutoc, one of the convenors of the Young Moro Professionals, a group helping the government in peace talks with armed Muslim groups in the south.


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Philippines massacre Indeed, dozens of people are killed each election season in this impoverished and often lawless south-east Asian nation.

Local political warlords have for generations competed for political power and the accompanying business riches that government posts offer.

These clans control private armies, which carry out assassinations and attacks on rivals.

The proliferation of over 1.1 million unlicensed firearms, most of them in the hands of rebel groups or paramilitaries, contribute to the general lawlessness in many remote areas, according to police.

In the run-up to congressional elections in 2007, a member of parliament from a northern province was gunned down on the steps of a church by an assassin hired by his rival, while attending a wedding in Manila.

All in all, 121 people were killed that polling season, according to national police statistics, slightly fewer than the 148 who died in the 2004 national elections.

But while the problem involves the entire country, experts say Maguindanao and other parts of the far southern island of Mindanao - where a Muslim insurgency has waged for decades - are particularly volatile.

"Politics in Mindanao is about ownership of power. Public office is perceived as a personal, clannish thing - a birth right, and they would spill blood for it," Gutoc said.

She said she expected more violence in the fall-out from Monday's massacre, with relatives of those killed expected to carry out vendetta killings, called rido in the local dialect.

"Retaliation is a natural course of events," she said.

At least 22 people were murdered as they accompanied the wife of Esmael Mangudadatu, a local government official, to file his candidacy for governor of Maguindanao province and end the decades-old control of a rival Muslim clan.

The military said 100 heavily armed men under the control of his rival, Andal Ampatuan, seized the group of more than 40 people and later shot many of them dead.

Twenty-two bodies have so far been found, and the death toll is likely to rise, the military said.

None of the Ampatuans could be contacted, but the military maintains that the family is probably behind the attack.

Abhoud Syed Linga, the executive director of the Institute of Bangsamoro Studies, who has done research on clan fighting, said that the murders further complicate the Muslim insurgency that has claimed more than 150,000 lives since the 1970s.

"Some rido are sustained for generations," Linga said. "The retaliation and counter-retaliation involve the whole family or clan."

The vendetta killings, he said, are the "consequence of the absence of justice" for a perceived wrong.

"Among Muslims the value of justice is strong to the extent that it becomes a duty for family members to work for justice and reject oppression," he said.

Amnesty International said that the killings underlined the danger facing civilians across the entire country before next year's elections.

"The government must prohibit and disband private armies and paramilitary forces immediately," said Amnesty's deputy director in Asia, Donna Guest.