My take on the NPAs landmine attack on an ambulance in Banasalan, Davao del Sur. The trouble with landmines By Paulynn P. Sicam On the evening of March 2, the New People’s Army planted a landmine on a highway in Bansalan, Davao del Sur, to blast two army trucks full of soldiers that they expected to pass by. But instead of fatigue-colored 6x6 trucks, they hit a white local-government ambulance with the words, “Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council” painted prominently on its side. And in it were local government and Red Cross medical personnel who were on their way to pick up 11 soldiers who had been wounded in another NPA landmine attack earlier that day. While no one was killed in the second attack, it inflicted various injuries on the ambulance passengers. In that second landmine attack, the NPA ran afoul of one of the most important precepts of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) which guides the conduct of armed conflict: the protection of medical personnel, along with their vehicles and installations. In this attack on an unarmed group of medical personnel, the NPA committed a horrific war crime. IHL has recently been written into Philippine law (Republic Act No. 9851) which defines war crimes as “crimes against International Humanitarian Law.” The law states that it is a war crime to intentionally direct “attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, as long as they are entitled to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under the international law of armed conflict.” The NPA attack was clearly intentional. The situation was completely under their control. They lay in wait, and activated a landmine but instead of hitting a military truck, they hit an ambulance. They later said the ambulance should have used a siren and headlights so it could be properly identified. But that is hindsight. There is no excuse for murder and mayhem. Using international law as cover, the NPA has used landmines liberally, killing many soldiers intentionally, and a number of civilians who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, by accident. Like dynamite fishermen, they go for the wholesale harvest, preferring to kill in quantity, hopefully with the least collateral damage. But while dynamite fishers sell their poisonous catch surreptitiously, the NPA crow about their kills, insisting that international law, specifically the Ottawa Convention of 1997, allows the use of command-detonated improvised explosive devices for specific, directed attacks. Their landmines, they explain blithely, citing Ottawa, are lethal only to uniformed personnel and not anyone else, especially not civilians. Unlike the other kind which explodes when any random pressure is put on it, the NPAs landmines, the NPA would like us to believe, are practically “humane,” unless of course, you are a soldier on patrol or riding a military vehicle. I don’t ascribe to any law, national or international, that allows anyone to use a lethal weapon. But, given that the NPA’s use of landmines is supposedly “allowed,” it is time to ask the obvious questions: How many times have civilians actually been harmed by such attacks? How accurate is the aim of the NPA guerrilla who detonates a landmine? And how can anyone really tell if the occupants of any vehicle are military, police, local officials, medical personnel, or God forbid, families with children? Who anointed the NPA to be the arbiters of who lives or dies on a deserted highway? Another question that bothers me is, what kind of brainwashing does the NPA do that would make a cadre kill in cold blood, and from a safe and cowardly distance, people he may have never met but who, like him, have lives and dreams of their own? What happened in Bansalan is a clear example of how things can go wrong when one is “allowed” to use a lethal weapon such as a landmine. All the legalese of international law and the technical definition of a command-detonated landmine cannot justify the killing or maiming of anyone, especially an innocent civilian. And there have already been one too many. Last Wednesday, the NPA claimed responsibility for violating IHL, and apologized for the treacherous attack on the ambulance and its passengers who were clearly on a humanitarian mission. They promised to investigate and mete punishment on the responsible cadres. But the harm has been done. The violence has gone on long enough. An apology is the least and easiest thing the NPA can issue. But it is cheap and glib, and it just does not cut it. Not for the LGU and its medical personnel doing their job, not for the victims and their families, not for the communities that they continue to disturb with their violent activities, not for a nation sick of the protracted armed conflict. Already, one victim has said a written apology is not enough. He wants the NPA spokesman say sorry on national television. And about their intent to investigate, we have still to get the results of other so-called investigations the NPA is supposed to have done after many other operations that have gone wrong. To make good on their pious mea culpas, the NPA must stop utilizing landmines altogether. And, while they are at it, they may want to consider other, non-violent ways to get their messages across. Their insistence on using landmines, even command-detonated ones, has only made the NPA look blood-thirsty. Even the Philippine military that the NPA so despises, stopped the manufacture and use of landmines years ago. By continuing to utilize such murderous tools, the NPA looks much worse than those whom they demonize and hold themselves above. ###
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 05:22:39 +0000
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