Maguindanao Pre-Election Massacre

Flopping Aces ^ | 11-24-09 | Wordsmith

[Starman417]

When we give our Thanksgiving blessings around the dinner table on Thursday, let's all give thanks that we live in a country where ACORN's influence and accusations of election fraud are our greatest cause for concern:

Manila, Philippines (CNN) -- Search teams pulled 24 more bodies out of shallow graves in the Philippines Tuesday bringing the death toll to 46 in a massacre linked to local elections, state-run media reported.

The Philippine government declared a state of emergency in southern parts of the country following Monday's shooting, which government officials called the worse pre-election violence in the country's history.

The victims include journalists, lawyers, and relatives of local politicians.

The Southern Philippines have long been dominated by the warfare violence and insurgency of Moro (Muslim) tribes. Nevertheless, Filipinos are shocked by Monday's massacre:

Election violence is not unusual, even including the assassination of rivals. But this incident has shocked all observers for its scale and apparent brutality.

"Even to our enemies, we don't do this, not to women, not the mutilations. Even the most violent of our warlords, no-one can imagine this," said Amina Rasul, director of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy.

The Philippine Star mentions beheadings done by chainsaw.

The blame is being placed on clan warfare and rivalry.

It is normal for clans to have large private armies of scores and in some cases hundreds of well-armed, ill-regulated men.

In Mindanao, this mix is made more dangerous by the decades of Muslim and communist insurgencies. This has given more power and budgets to local police and military operations, and led to the formation of volunteer squads intended to assist in counter-insurgency.

I'd like it to be noted in the records that these clans are also Islamic in nature. And really, given the history of the region, I don't quite understand why this violence is somehow "unprecedented". As one commenter at Jihad Watch notes,

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Visited the P.I. a couple times in the late 50s and became convinced the whole country was nuts.

[Misterioso]

Allahu akhbar?

[buwaya]

It is unprecedented.

As the article says, political violence is quite common, assassinations and such are certainly not rare. Politicians, journalists, and politically-involved people (fixers, gangsters, activists, etc.) are all more or less playing in a dangerous game. But there are limits to this. Murders are done cleanly. Families and innocents are not targets, and if hit its inadvertent. There are unwritten rules.

The participants in the various recent wars, the Muslims (MNLF, MILF) and communists, military and militias, have also generally tried to play clean. The targets are participants and interested parties, fighters, soldiers, officials, suspects, etc., the targets were specific.

Again, usually innocents were not included. And where they were - grenades in public markets and the like - it was occasional and impersonal. People have been killed in the course of torture also, but again, this was an occasional thing and the victims were involved parties. All sides were careful of public opinion. There are rules.

The big exception was Abu Sayyaf. This was the first mass-murdering outfit on the scene with no limits. Deliberate cruelty and the deliberate massacre of innocents was something they brought in. When I first heard of this I first thought of Abu Sayyaf.

The really strange thing about this is that it isn’t Abu Sayyaf. This is new, and very horrible. Head-chopping with chainsaws is beyond even Abu Sayyaf. And the fact that its all about the usual local politics, patronage, etc. is extremely odd. I can see a murder or two in the course of such a dispute. But this ? Its like something from Africa or Saddam Hussein.

[Mark17]

Visited the P.I. a couple times in the late 50s and became convinced the whole country was nuts.

I was in Mindanao in 2003, and Luzon in 2004. Eastern Mindanao is peaceful. I would never go out west where this stuff happened. I think it is mostly the Muslims and communists that cause all the trouble. My wife is from there. I always enjoy going to the Philippines. I just avoid the bad areas, and always stay with lots of Filipino friends.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Dad and mom and I were in a cab in Manila when another cab ran into the back of our cab. Our driver stepped out, pulled a .45 and shot the other cabby dead. Another cab driver fired two shots at our driver before backing off. All over a dented bumper on a Renault.

[gleeaikin]

Another article on this massacre that I read reported that this was a feud between two competing political families, and also referred to a long period of sultans ruling autocratically in this region. Ah, the religion of Peace.