caliphate and syria and iraq more for a nice five tests might also decide that mindanao is the new front and you can see that film in its entirety called philippines in the sights of bias right after this program it's also on our you tube channel t w documentary rachael will be with you with more news at the top of the next hour thanks for. staying in school in the jungle. or first climbing lesson and then the doors grand moment arrives. join your reckoning on her journey back to freedom. in our interactive documentary. an orangutan returns home on the d w don't come in tanks.

you know if you. search. google or don't know one mother always burned a place it's a good. good. if i have the money of my job i want to join the ice and. this was squashed by an ideology that's foreign to us violent extremists him coming into the

country from other countries. i don't see us. really never anything we can. get supervision of all this is just a i don't cement over liberation. running this clip in the blink of an eye my children were gone i will never see them again and that some bearable. what the president did in there always a good lesson. it's only going to get. from.

move . me removed . 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 it seized the mainly muslim town of mirali and held it for five months. the consequences were devastating. for. the philippine president rodrigo do character known for his brutal zero tolerance approach proceeded to bomb the city. we want to find out how it was possible. i asked to gain

a foothold in the philippines. and when. we meet someone who witnessed the battle for murali the people they thought it's a joke. city. and they cost tens of thousands of people. it's unthinkable but it happened and this is how terrorism plays its part because it can explode it would break out any time it will run out of notre dame look mon 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 morality it's now an exclusion zone the city has a population of two hundred thousand. but.

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 make. people here called 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. west's two bombs. i was watching you behold. they stop interrupting me here. there was a time. i think my brother went to the. can to stop the bombings but the army rejected because they say. they can't handle the situation. where they were not able to tell the situation. i am spiders had taken downtown murali 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 car 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 are 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 where. after twelve days of siege food and water were running out in morocco.

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

elation i didn't have it's almost divine. i'm still alive and people are alive nobody got hurt but 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 were not destroyed life looks like it is back to normal though martial law is still in force throughout mindanao thanks. for being. here stopped repeatedly at military checkpoints.

i. wanted posters for suspected terrorists are everywhere. who are they and what do they want. 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 obvious but i was enough and the country taught us what the qur'an says that is an eye for an eye. and we have the right to take revenge but i know i don't play games as i've been out of. the i s commanders launched the attack earlier than planned abdul wasn't in morocco at the time. you know what i mean the question will last a long. when we heard that they had started fighting those of us outside.

and we discussed how to get to the center. i mean. not that i mean we 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 in a given. fight there are not only coming on. i wouldn't fight in iraq and in any other muslim area the same thing would happen again. only muslim people with. it but if the battle took place somewhere else i would join somalia. 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.a.s. fighters in morale we were two brothers omar and. members of a powerful clan they are revered as heroes by their young final years. 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 fighters. visiting me in my house and yet convincing me to join in there sometimes they told me please join us we will make you us our army. yes and you will make us our leader actually when you have been with me but they have been letting you join us because we cannot

trust in them or people have been governments because they are always betraying us yes so that's why i did become. back because one. 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 it sympathizers around the world to support them out of brothers in the battle on mindanao. you know what they make it in mr stubley islamic state that's why i told him it is impossible because even you know when this water but the highlight of the philippine go but i mean will not allow it to hopping if you see what's happening in iraq. doing the america i didn't mean thing so what's happening now that you know where the talks about that you know you will lose.

sharif runs several religious schools in morocco way he says the kind of islam they teach is peaceful and has nothing in common with i guess ideology. owing. 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. what our president did this did by the way ok you can count the one and borg. column in may on opinion this is the day. but the goldberg the go betterment or self

has appalled because did not allow us to negotiate with the devil. we accompany shareef to midday prayers in the mosque. feel. safe. muslims make up just five percent of the philippine population the majority are catholics almost all the muslims live on and you know all. sharif says that many here feel marginalized and abused by the philippine government

a feeling 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. and you know when i will my strength comes from allah only from. he keeps me alone . think that. 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. fatima 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 . or missing. trying to hide my suffering from other children. it turns when i pray to god to ask him to take my knowing. that when i see my children. i still so young.

i will go about them every little my request and instead ask him to give me more years to live the good one the monk. one. who can. have a. little. most of the children in the displaced persons camp still go to school most of the families are poor. family an 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 to turn take conducted the campaign to retake

or just. 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 ways one 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 among 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 mere a good talk takes us to a mass. grave outside of town. it's not known who is buried here. none of the victims were ever identified.

brow he 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 a national without local civilian population on it will always be a lock and failed experiment it's a failed decision tomorrow is a failed decision 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 or 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. oh wait wait wait wait wait. but since i has burst on to the same the former arch enemies the front and the government have become strategic allies. you know. 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 songs and moro. negotiations led to a deal codified in the bongs

a more organic law the basis for the new bangsamoro autonomous region in muslim and now with its own parliament government budget and islamic legal system. what is the reason why this model receives happen. because the vision just of this young people are never fed up. that's why i am then a hair. the girl. of course. and they. believe.

in order. to visit the headquarters of the military wing of the liberation front. as. the chief of staff isn't in uniform

a sign perhaps of the shift from armed struggle to political action and responsibility. we ask what might happen if the project of autonomy doesn't go well . then maybe they. are people are they a saudi leads us by our creativity did a lot of people really become diminished the time that the isis was bombed that his station. all the followers of the will go in for their good will and that they prayed and become bigger. says. the liberation front has a lot of support among the muslim world poor 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. f. says it will disarm up to thirty thousand fighters once autonomy for the muslim majority region is implemented. what they have not been based that this quickly and then we will not. decommission 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. 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 movement's 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. beside indices even forcing the peace process that so i really thought us president the deputy because obey his pronouncement his action and all these. attributed the words have been displaced that's why really the us president 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 dusk to combat looks after the small chapel the villages within the new bangsamoro autonomous region. the 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 in poland and 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 i do this in town and not christians. more in a week and a magical guy did that mean i'm a good i don't let the enough cause i'm afraid that my robbery will happen again i saw what happened in mirali the city was destroyed and our livelihood would also be destroyed if this were to happen somewhere here in our area leaves daily income it was all i want to in. god we don't even live here. we don't want to be evacuated

we don't want to live without direction and they don't think i was a light in the mine but with the man. woman. who was a man who would 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 of course you know leaving when muslims come to our village says no problem but when we go to where they are they want to cut off our heads let me in. the middle of you know melissa long as that's why we don't want them to rule in our community didn't someone but that's the attitude of muslims is very different from our christian attitude we're standing by live. on money it's terrifying. what will happen to our children when we have to live under muslim broke. muslims and christians are different of them or that wasn't just simply had. once the muslims

rule they will make us the slaves and steal our harvest. 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 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 his source

today said. he invited us to see his fish farm. so this is where i get my money beyond what they are earning over there and more here than before. oh he's a busy politician so he soon heads back to the city. we arranged to meet him again later. is a mainly catholic city and it's striking up

a prosperous it appears to be compared to muslim communities on mindanao it is also considered the safest and cleanest city in the country. many say that's thanks to rob riggle two territories tenure as mer. case used to raise some agrees we meet him again at his waterfront resort he says due to is a man of action not words watch only a what the auction that it takes that is how you measuring him don't measure him by what comes out from the small he is doing the unprecedented when he was mayor here for more than twenty years in this city that plus 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 hold ups 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 to be held up because he can personally counter them in his own way drugs corruption violent extremists if you handle them against globs and all that maybe you will just prolong the agony. but i can do 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. who was easily. the racist says it's a very western point of view to accuse to territory of abusing human rights and

argues that to tertius so popular because he both pursues reconciliation and embodies toughness as he demonstrated with respect to morale we. it is a strong 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 it 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. 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 the 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 the colonial war against our people. and that is what's happening now. and until now this is the circle i don't want city has the end result and healthfully. we can resolve this peacefully without going through a war. or let everything. look

man says he's going to run for deputy governor political developments over the coming months will prove decisive. for. the. political will. 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 for many centuries or many decades 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 iraq well over a year after the brutal battle hamlet what. made it home and. 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 and during poverty and discrimination would only keep the threat of islamist terror alive for and render peace and empty promise her. first step.

quadriga international talk show for journalists to discuss the topic of the week coming up on quadriga there are some one thousand battle hardened islamic state fighters and their families from germany or now heading home after i s's collapse what should germany do with them and how dangerous are they all that and more coming up. quadriga and thirty minutes on t.w. .

a months long curiosity. to. the. degree it's a sex phone operator who works her masters thesis on the potato from her to marie. not a turn on well it's more words it was from their. literature list. the street.

this is due to abuse coming to you live from saddam's military council hints that civilian rule could return soon not than it had first indicated the military council said it would be in charge for two years now it says the transition period could be a short answer one month this thousands of true democracy protests.