Prolonging Displacement Until Mid-2015 is an Assault on Human Dignity
It is Killing IDP Victims of Displacement Day by Day!

Each day that an IDP dies at the Grandstand (Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex) and at Cawa-cawa Boulevard, our humanity is assaulted. Today, death toll is 104, and our humanity is affronted by the fact that at almost 7 months since the September 9, 2013 siege, the unbearable stench and all the sanitation and environmental factors that have significantly impacted on the IDPs’ health and longevity are due to protracted displacement as well as negligence attributed to the Government both at national and local levels failure to uphold right to life and human dignity of IDPs most especially those stranded at the cited evacuation centers. From assaulted to affronted, we cannot describe how appalled we are would this fatal condition of displacement be prolonged until mid-2015! It is the government’s paramount duty to ensure and protect the lives of its civilians be they victims of calamity or of armed conflict- for either way this does not in any way devaluate their rights and status as IDPs.

Clearly the death toll is indeed a “tolling” red alert, an alarming SOS that the urgency of the situation at Grandstand and Cawa-cawa is beyond mere coordinating and facilitating, it is beyond Z3R blueprint, dialogues and conferences; it is beyond cash burial assistance no matter how laudable are these. Prolonging the sufferings and agonies of these displaced civilians is not only assault against human dignity but worse than death itself.

The City government must not just dump IDPs and abandon vulnerable children, women and the elderly to die as they languish in such squalor within the debilitating confines of ECs while we chart tediously Z3R and analyze data via cluster approach; and yet as we build what we termed durable shelters alongside durable solutions, consequently, the IDPs die one by one and day by day.

Further delaying without just cause the dignified return of displaced civilians to their home of origin is denying them economic, and socio-cultural justice. Government must be gently reminded by its sovereign Filipino people that the residents of Rio Hondo and Mariki be from its land area, shoreline, or sea did not took flight in fright spontaneously; they were coerced to evacuate and abandon their homes and properties. Yet, these zones are areas where armed conflict or actual combat during the siege never took place. Now, these zones are among those that have become NO RETURN AREAS even in the absence of imminent threat and danger. We denounce both the national and local government’s failure to uphold the right to life and human dignity of IDPs in Zamboanga City. In equal terms, we decry its lack of political will to render truth because without truth, there can be no justice; and fundamentally, to deny the displaced civilians to their right to return to their home of origin is a blatant assault against their very human dignity.

Tomorrow is the last day of the International Women’s Month, we herald its end to sustain its beginning of empowered yet vulnerable women who resonate their voices as stakeholders of peace and security in the name of Almighty God and of our compassion for humanity.

To the City and the National Government, our unified voices toll:

a. for the right to life and human security, freedom from want and fear of “internally displaced persons” languishing at Grandstand and Cawa-cawa; Stop the Death Toll! Hardest hit by the mortality rate is neonates, children, pregnant women and lactating mothers as well as ailing elderly;

b. for their right to informed decision and consultation according to the UN guiding principles: End Displacement with a Timeline, Revive Bayanihan-Balikatan Spirit!;

c. for their right to transparency in matters of decisionmaking that needs their involvement and participation: Ensure Transparency and Accountability!;

d. for their right to reparation and restitution for whatever loss they have suffered due to displacement during and after the armed conflict: Rule of Law and Equality before the Law!;

e. for truth and justice via an independent and neutral Fact Finding Mission Team so that healing and rebuilding can ever take place. During the burning by still undetermined reasons or unidentified arsonists, not only were the civilians homes but also their hearts and psyche were burnt: Heal Transgenerational Trauma that breeds suspicion, mistrust, discrimination, violence and bloodshed!

PRESS STATEMENT
PAHRA Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates
31 March 2014
Zamboanga City

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