we were. when we were. in the percent of americans at some point and i will experience hardship listening. to what's coming up going to sleep so much movement to. get this thing fixed and. you know it's going to take a look at what all that means for the type of. i'm going to sleep every weekend here on t w.

you know if you. are certain. it was good don't know what already burned a place let it go at it. if i have a buy me a five job i want doing the ice and. this was squashed by an ideology that's foreign to us by a little extremist him coming into the country from other countries.

i deceives generations but he never did a flip cam in. the supervision of all this is just eat i don't cement of our liberation. only in this clinic in the blink of an eye my children were gone i will never see them again and that some bearable it's up to you. what the president did in there always a good lesson. this is only the beginning.

moos . move . we're on mindanao the second biggest island of the philippines. it's in the south of the country a little smaller than south korea and famous for its natural beauty. this

is also the site of one of the longest running conflicts in asia it's mainly a conflict between the christian majority and the muslim minority more than one hundred thousand have been killed over the past decades. may twenty seventeen saw a catastrophic development the self-proclaimed islamic state also known as i got involved in the conflict. with just a few hundred fighters that seized the mainly muslim town of mirali and held it for five months. the consequences were devastating. the philippine president rodrigo detector known for his brutal zero tolerance approach proceeded to bomb the city. we want to find out how it was possible. for us to gain

a foothold in the philippines. in the world. and. we meet someone who witnessed the battle for murali the people thought it's a joke how can you attack a city. and they cost tens of thousands of civilians. it's unthinkable but it happened and there this is how terrorism plays its part because it can explode could break out at any time it will. not look mom is a historian and a member of a powerful muslim family nonetheless he has to ask the army for permission to accompany us into the center of mirali it's now an exclusion zone and the city has a population of two hundred thousand of them.

is not allowed to enter his house. not all the booby traps and explosive devices in the area have been cleared away. tell us where we may go and how long we may. people here call the exclusion zone ground zero of thousands have lost their homes . to be the central mosque. he used to come here and stay here and pray for the dead

. far more helicopter gunships. bombs. i was watching it with my twelve days of the year. there was a time i think my brother went to channel baathist. to stop the bombings but they rejected it because they say. they can't handle the situation. where they were not able to situation. i asked fighters had taken downtown the wrong way on may twenty third twenty seventeen government forces responded swiftly and harshly.

in this type of warfare you have to flush out the enemy from their defensive position. if you look at the experience of. aleppo. all of this experienced bombings but in the case of. the hour when we did the bombings it was been pointed to specific targets only. the battle lasted five months more than a thousand people were killed for the armed forces it was the toughest battle since the second world war i asked terrorists took hostages and murdered christians.

desperate terrified people sought shelter on no deano man's property both muslims and christians. i was not afraid i just want to make sure that everybody is safe i don't care about death of us waiting to die. i don't know i did not fear death because. you know i was schooled you know really just so. the situation. we never think about the. as an enemy. if it's god's will that you die you die if it's god's will that you really believe even if you are. right in the middle of mosul or. or in damascus or where. after twelve days of siege food and water running out in morocco we

look man whose nickname is norway decided to flee with those he had been sheltering . in front of a white building. a boy was blocking my path. i was right in that basketball rink and then when i got near. he recognized me and said no way. and i said what are you doing here i don't know cooper. what are you doing here. i fired at least even so proud of it and then after that he said this is no way let's let them pass at the pass so. when i pass by a bear i saw some snipers there in that building. bullets and their guns. were looking at me as it. but this they stopped firing and i felt so happy i mean you cannot explain the experience down in any other situation but. i i felt that

elation i think that it's almost divine. i'm still alive and people are alive nobody got hurt that's ok thank god. look man became the hero of iraq. he led more than one hundred fifty civilians to safety. in parts of the city that are not destroyed life looks like it is back to normal though martial law is still in force throughout mindanao. here stopped repeatedly at military checkpoints.

wanted posters for suspected terrorists are everywhere. who are they. and what do they want. as we meet abdul he was recruited at the age of seventeen he didn't have a job i asked offered him money and a gun he says he trained in the jungle alongside local and foreign fighters. says i mean less audience but i love what i and the comfort taught us what the qur'an says. is an eye for an eye. and we have the right to take revenge but i know i don't feel as i've been in. the i.a.s. commanders launched the attack earlier than planned abdul wasn't in morocco at the time. you know what i mean interesting when i say.

when we heard that they had started fighting those of us outside my rafi max and we discussed how to get to the center. i mean. like i mean i tried seven times we even used motor boats to try to get in from the lake but it didn't work but. i do past information about the movement of government troops to his eye as comrades inside the besieged city by cell phone he tells us that forty of his friends were killed none the less he could imagine joining battle again. so. we have an advantage because we young people just blend in with the population. the military can't easily identify which of us are fighters who know

how to use a gun. fight or not only coming home. i wouldn't fight in iraq. or in any other muslim area the same thing would happen again. only muslim people. but if the battle took place somewhere else i would join somalia. abdul is out of a job again and he's disappointed about losing the battle and about the empty promises i said made. the leaders of the i.r.s. five years in a row we were two brothers omar and. members of a powerful clan they are revered as heroes by their young followers. but most

muslims on mentor now have no sympathy for the ideology of the so-called islamic state other can share reef is a leading figure in the local muslim community he knew them out of brothers because of his long beard he has been dubbed bin laden as in osama bin laden. sharif likes the nickname even though he says he is opposed to violence and said that to the local i.a.s. fighters. visiting me in my house and they have convincing me to join them sometimes they told me please join us we will make you us our army. yes he will make us our leader actually when you have talking with me but they have been letting you join us because we cannot trust anymore people have been governors

because they are always betraying us yes so that's why i did become. bad because. sharif did not join the group led by the mountain brothers he told them he could not fight because he had heart disease. islamic state called on its sympathizers around the world to support the mountain brothers in the battle on mindanao. guy day that's why i told him it is impossible because even you know when this water but the a leg of the pritikin go but i mean will not allow it if you see you have been in iraq. doing. so what.

i'm sorry for on several religious schools in morocco way he says the kind of islam they teach is peaceful and has nothing in common with i.a.s. ideology. he tells us that muslims here are concerned to maintain their own culture independence is not a priority. in fact he says many muslims in iraq we had actually voted for do territory. and yet it was the president himself he continues who provoked the attack on the city. look what our president did use good bye to you ok you can count the money and more. authority in may on opinion this is the part of the i.c.c. but the goldberg go betterment or self-support because did not allow us to

negotiate with the. us. we accompany sharif to midday prayers in the mosque. sufficient. muslims make up just five percent of the philippine population the majority are catholics almost all the muslims live olenda now or. sharif says that many here feel marginalized and abused by the philippine government appealing only confirmed by the bombing of murali.

as a result of the conflict and the destruction tens of thousands fled the city. we visit one of the many camps set up for the displaced. fatima is a widow and used to run a small shop downtown she has eight children since the battle erupted she hasn't seen four of them. thank you no one will know my strength comes from allah only from allah he keeps me alone. before i could hear my children's voices but not anymore. before in the middle of the night at one in the morning i could hear them crying asking for help but now i

can't hear them anymore my children are too far away already i can no longer hear their voices. normal. the four who have gone missing three girls and a boy were all in qur'an school when the fighting began. and the four children still with her are tormented by thoughts of what might have happened to the others were they seized by the i s fighters are they long dead. missing. someone trying to hide my suffering from the other children. there are times when i pray to god to ask him to take my life. but when i see my children. i still so young.

will go about going to go my request and instead ask him to give me more years to live the gunmen the monk. who couldn't you couldn't. vote. for who. most of the children in the displaced persons camps don't go to school most of the families are poor. the great and important person has come to visit some miracle talk she's running for the senate and if she wins she will be the first muslim senator in a quarter of a century she's critical of the way deter take conducted the campaign to retake.

the liberation of all of this is just. kind of announcement of our liberation but the real liberation is not living in this kind of the liaison this is not the way we were this is not the kind of life we want this is not the kind of freedom that we want for children missing amongst thousand people missing is not an achievement it is a moral disaster it's in funny it is infamy for us. that can never be repaired. nobody knows how many civilians were killed during the siege. so mirror good talk to take some. to a mass grave outside of town. it's not known who is buried here. none of the victims were ever identified.

is an example of discrimination on of not allowing traditional indigenous mediation systems if we keep on making peacekeeping as a decision of only men in uniform and the national with local civilian population on it will always be a lock and failed experiment it's a failed decision my ra is a failed on it cannot be any more used as a template for any other. the following day we have an appointment with the largest muslim rebel group on mindanao the moral islamic liberation front m i l f we are told to follow the black pickup in front into territory controlled by the group.

for decades the rebels fought for independence from the central government in manila many thousands were killed in the fighting. wait wait wait wait wait. make sense i asked burst into the saying the former archenemies the front and the government have become strategic allies. you know. right now. we need a rebel leader who played a key role in dialogue with the government under successive presidents. gods only john tells us of his determination to establish an autonomy homeland for his people bongs a moral. negotiations lead to a deal codified in the bangsamoro organic law the basis for the new bangs

a moro autonomous region in muslim and now with its own parliament government budget and islamic legal system. what is the reason why it's not always seems to happen if this because of a say in justice this young people are never fed up. that's why i say then here come the girls were just more militant. are perhaps there. of course rain or the isis may i say is. trying to fight it out. there to be our ally outside of the middle east. and. they believe. men are are oppressed. can't meet their eye

because. the muslims are not satisfied. we are allowed to visit the headquarters of the military wing of the liberation front. he's. the chief of staff isn't in uniform

a sign perhaps of the shift from armed struggle to political action and responsibility. or we ask what might happen if the project of autonomy doesn't go well. they may be day. people or maybe saudi leads us but our creativity did a lot of people really become diminished that's the time that the isis with. the station documented all the power so the will go in for their good will and. that they can become bigger. so the liberation front has a lot of support among the muslim world for many believe their ancestors were victims of a historical injustice committed by christians the spanish an american colonists and the philippine government in manila. the prospect of autonomy and peace has

given the people here new hope. the m i l f says it will disarm up to thirty thousand fighters once autonomy for the muslim majority region is implemented. but what if not then they start the squarely demand we will not. the commission our forces and we will not also give up our fight arms which we promised that a government. the rebels take us on patrol. out in the marshes here there are still fighters loyal to i.a.s. lying low. and. we have the impression the m.i.l.f. men want to show that they are still in charge as if to say without us there can be

no peace on mindanao. the movements leaders evidently think highly of president hu territory for advancing peace but also because he too is from mindanao and has muslims in his family. he said it is easier than pushing the peace process that's why i really thought us president the good thing because obey his pronouncement his action and all these. attributes if the words had been displace that's why it really but i suppose it that. we ask ourselves who does the land really belong to to the muslims whose ancestors settled on mindanao in the thirteenth century or to the christians who came much later but now account for the majority of the island's population.

we visit the village of mother one hundred families live here they're all catholic . the only dance to combat looks after the small chapel the villages within the new bangsamoro autonomous region. possibility simply. my worry is that we just don't know. if we go to the town hall for example we don't

know what will happen to us when the muslims are impelling what they can do to us. even a money bomb and he. said in that book i know that's why i'm scared when our date is in town and not christians. who are eight. and madge look ok did that mean i'm a good i don't let that was matter of course i'm afraid that my robbery will happen again i saw what happened in the city was destroyed and our livelihood would also be destroyed if this were to happen somewhere here in our area that he left the steady income it was all i want to in. god we did not easily live here. we don't want to be evacuated we don't want to life without direction and they don't

remember muscle in the mine but with the man. when i only said whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa would you carry. the villagers are descendants of christian settlers from the north most of whom came here while the philippines was under u.s. control which only ended in one thousand nine hundred six. many here don't trust muslims have seen any of them when muslims come to our village says no problem but when we go to where they are they want to cut off our heads well let me in. the middle of you know melissa long as that's why we don't want them to rule in our community vigilance on them but that's the attitude of muslims is very different from our christian attitude we're standing by live there when the money it's terrifying. what will happen to our children when we have to live under muslim broke. muslims and christians are different of the mob that was a study simply had look at. once the muslims rule they will make us the slaves and

steal our harvest well balanced on what you want. i'm going to welcome. after church on sunday in a nearby village it's time for some cock fighting. it's a bloody spectacle and a favorite pastime for many in the philippines mainly among christians.

muslim religious leaders and the moro islamic liberation front disapprove not of the cruelty but because it involves gambling.

we reached the biggest city in mindanao. president to to was mayor here for more than twenty years. this is where he began his notorious war on drugs seemingly deploying the police as extrajudicial hitman. estimates of the number of people killed ranged between five thousand and twenty thousand. the next morning we meet an old friend and confidant of the president he says today

sux. he invited us to see his fish farm. so this is what i get my money beyond what they are being told there and more here . ok. he's a busy politician so he soon heads back to the city. we arranged to meet him again later. in. the fall is a mainly catholic city and it's striking how prosperous it appears to be compared

to muslim communities in mindanao it is also considered the safest and cleanest city in the country. many say that's thanks to run the territories tenure as mer. case used to race in agrees we meet him again at his waterfront resort he says ditto to is a man of action not words watch. the action that it takes that is how you measuring him don't measure him by what comes out from his small doing b. and president. when he was mayor here for more than twenty years in this city that was his way of doing things and he had to do it hands on you know i he's my friend . during night time during times when there are high incidence of holdups all docs are drivers he would drive a taxi himself. how about gun ready and drive and go to places where hold ups are

usually happening here once or so to be held up because he can personally counter them in his own way drugs corruption violent extremists if you handle them with kids gloves and all that maybe you will just prolong the agony. for you but. the research does p.r. for do territory when ever he can. for many years he was presidential peace advisor he explains the peace plan from mindanao to a group of visitors many of whom are fans of the president. was less seriously. the racist says it's a very western point of view to accuse to territory of abusing human rights and

argues that paternity is so popular because he both pursues reconciliation and embodies toughness as he demonstrated with respect to murali. it is a stroll signal to the bad guys that don't play around with this country have been in the peace process under several presidents and we have not moved as far as we have this time the president feels that we can improve as a nation if we try to give more authority and power to the locals. if. we head back to murali to meet nordin look mom again. he shows us the small museum that his family sponsored.

the central exhibit is a painting depicting a battle between muslims and spanish colonizers who arrived in the sixteenth century and were the first christians to settle in mindanao. what happened in mari city is a continuation of a colonial war against our people. and that is for us happening now. and until. the circle i mean was it has the end result and hopefully. we can resolve this peacefully without going through a war. like the recent.

look man says he's going to run for deputy governor political developments over the coming months will prove decisive. or. will get a little bit of that. he views the prospect of autonomy for muslims in the region as an opportunity to overcome old enmities but as a historian he's all too aware of a long history of conflict of many centuries for many to cage for many generations . most of the problems that are being solved in mindanao has to go to war. every don't want war and war but if it comes then so be it. back.

at the end of our trip we take part in a ceremony to mark the start of reconstruction in the wrong way well over a year after the brutal battle hamlet let alone. made it out how. the event had been postponed several times so that president deter take could attend. but in the end he doesn't show up. we leave mindanao with the feeling that regional autonomy will not amount to much unless the muslim minority see real improvements in their everyday lives enduring poverty and discrimination would only keep the threat of islamist terror a life and render peace an empty promise her. first. oh.

oh. benjamin hundred miles a good friend what western civilization he's turning an old monastery the italy into a far right cultural warrior has activists for a european populist movement. while has the backing of some powerful people opposition is mounting and not just locally. in ninety minutes on t.w. . her first day at school in the jungle.

first clueless of the. band doris green the moment arrives. joined during a taping on her journey back to freedom. in our interactive documentary. to bring it to returns home on d w dot com tang's. not all think out of the jam well i guess sometimes i am but i said nothing when that happened we should have been fixed even to jam a culture of looking at a good stereotype aquatics piercing to see for the country guy not. needed to be paid for this drama play out. it's all about. nothing i might show to join me to meet the german fun beat up you. post.

to me. play. this is news coming to you live from the european union delay's breaks it again with the peel to the u.k. . britain now has until the end of october to approve a divorce deal with. british prime minister theresa may to win the parliamentary backing that saluted her so far. also coming up the people of india have begun voting in the biggest election in the world.