AFP in denial over kids in armed conflict - IBON

A think tank on Monday criticized the Armed Forces over its alleged knee-jerk reaction on the Unicef-funded research about the effects of armed conflict on women and children. "The AFP's arrogant dismissal of the study, and the malicious attempt to link IBON with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), only reflects the state of denial among the state armed forces that the findings are legitimate," Jose Enrique Africa, IBON Foundation research head, said in a press statement. He added: "This only works against the well-being of the children, women and communities adversely affected by armed conflict." Africa said a military spokesperson was quoted as saying that the study Uncounted Lives: Children, Women and Conflict in the Philippines was "very partial" in favor of the communist rebels and that "other sources of information were not given due consideration." He said findings of the study are based on extensive research by IBON Foundation, the Children's Rehabilitation Center (CRC) and the Center for Women's Resources (CWR). The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) funded the research. "There was direct field work in armed conflict-affected communities and desk research using government and non-government sources," he said. He added that it was the attention to detail that gives the research team the confidence to bring even uncomfortable truths to light. "We are thus concerned with the AFP's knee-jerk reactions dismissing the study for its candor without benefit of a sincere reading of it." He said the study used data provided by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on displacements and by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on human rights violations allegedly by state forces and the country’s other armed groups. He said the non-government CRC, that has long worked with Unicef, in turn is a "leading source" of monitoring and documentation of human rights violations of children. He said the study included extensive direct quotes from official Armed Forces documents and publications particularly on its counter-insurgency strategies and tactics. "A request for basic information on the conflicts was actually submitted and pursued at the Defense Intelligence Office of the Department of National Defense (DND) in Camp Aguinaldo in June 2006, clearly identifying its use for the Unicef research, but this was turned down," he said. He added the study also used multiple research methods to investigate the impact of armed conflict on children and women in eight communities in the provinces of Abra, Mindoro Oriental, Capiz, Leyte, Surigao del Sur, Compostela Valley, North Cotabato and Maguindanao. The study used focus group discussions, life stories and key informant interviews with over 430 respondents of mainly children and women but also local government officials, religious leaders, church workers, NGO workers, teachers and school officials. There were also two surveys: one with 800 respondents to compare armed conflict with non-armed conflict areas; another with 1,180 respondents on basic health and education indicators. He said among the well-documented findings is that children and women face hazards from outbreaks of fighting in their communities and from physical displacement due to military operations. He added that children and women have also suffered not just as inadvertent "collateral damage" but as apparently conscious targets in the course of systematic military campaigns to undermine the community support base of the insurgent groups. "IBON hopes that the study contributes to making the plight of children and women amidst war more visible so that they become more urgent matters of attention. Unicef's support for this kind of rigorous grassroots-based research is bold and very welcome," he said. - GMANews.TV