this is g w news live from berlin i'm brian thomas for the entire news team thanks so much for being with us i'm reading team i will be with you again at the top of the hour have a great week i. can . stand for. language courses. video audio. anytime anywhere. w. .

research. there we go don't know one mother always burned a place and it's a good. good. if i have a minute of a job i want doing the isis. this was caused by an ideology that's foreign to us. extremists him coming in. to the country from other countries

. i'd say it's. really never anything. that's not a british couple see this is just eat i know incident of liberation. the names in the blink of an eye my children were gone but i will never see them again and that some bearable. in. what the president believed in me is the good lesson. of. this is only the beginning. from. the

mean mood. to me. we are on mindanao the 2nd 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 100000 have been killed over the past decades. may 2017 saw a catastrophic development the self-proclaimed islamic state also known as i got involved in the conflict with just a few 100 fighters that seized the mainly muslim town of mirali and held it for 5 months. the consequences were devastating. the philippine president rodrigo to task they're known for his brutal 0 tolerance approach proceeded to bomb the city. and. we want to find out how it was possible for i.a.s.

to gain a foothold in the philippines. from. we meet someone who witnessed the battle for. the people they thought it's a joke how can you attack a city. and they cost tens of thousands of people. it's unthinkable but it happened and that this is how terrorism place it's because it can explode to break out at any time it will. 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 morality it's now an exclusion zone the city has a population of 200000.

is not allowed to enter his house. not all the booby traps and explosive devices in the area have been cleared away. soldiers tell us where we may go and how long we may stay people here called the exclusion zone ground 0 tens of thousands have lost their homes. you think. this used to be the central mosque. he used to come here and stay here and pray for

the dead with. artillery marked our pick up their gunships jet fighters. fighter's ever thought of west's. bob this place but i was watching it the whole time with my 12 days of entrapment here. there was a time on the 2nd day of think my brother went to channel battiste. and us can to stop the bombings but the army rejected that because they say. they can't handle the situation. and they were not able to handle the situation. i am spiders taken downtown on may 23rd 2017 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 5 months more than a 1000 people were killed for the armed forces it was the toughest battle since the 2nd world war the 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 i was waiting to die. i don't know i did not fear death because. you know i was schooled you know really just see. the situation. we never think about. 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 morsel or. or in damascus where. after 12 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 town 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 no way. and i said what are you doing here i know he's google. what are you doing here. i hope that he's even so proud of it and then after that he said this is no way that split the past but the past so. when i passed by there i saw some snipers there in that building putting bullets in their guns. were looking at me as i did. but this they stopped firing and i felt so happy i mean you cannot explain experience that in any other situation

but. i i felt that elation i did that it's almost divine. i'm still alive and the people are alive nobody got hurt that's ok thank god. look man became the hero of harare he led more than $150.00 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. here stopped repeatedly at military checkpoints.

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 17 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 i mean but i was enough and the company taught us what the koran says. an eye for an eye. and we have the right to take revenge but then yeah i don't play games you know so i've been in. the i asked commanders launched the attack earlier than planned abdul wasn't in morocco at the time. no one element i mean a christian one of us along. when we heard that they had started fighting those of

us outside my rafi mass and we discussed how to get to the center. i mean. not that i mean i'm a tried 7 times we even used motor boats to try to get in from the lake but it didn't work but a. lot of the. past information about the movement of government troops to his eye as comrades inside the besieged city by cell phone he tells us that 40 of his friends were killed nonetheless he could imagine joining battle again. so stop wanting him when i mean this must not have an advantage because we young people just blend in with the population. that the military can't easily identify

which of us are fighters who know how to use a gun and having not a fighter or not only coming home alagna my buddy. because it was i wouldn't fight in iraq. or in any other muslim area and the same thing would happen again. only muslim people would get it but if the battle took place somewhere else i would join in somalia. abdul is out of a job again and he's disappointed about losing the battle and about the empty promises said raid. the leaders of the i.a.s. fighters in morocco we were 2 brothers omar and abdullah mountain members of a powerful clan they are revered as heroes by their young followers. but most

muslims on mindanao 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 asked fighters. visiting me in my house and yet convincing me to join them sometimes they told me please join us real make us our army. yes and he will make us all our leader actually when you have talking with me he said but i will be letting you join us because we

cannot trust him or if it had been governments because they are always betraying us so that's why i did become. budget cuts. 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 them out of brothers in the battle on mindanao. the other or to make. a slimy guy so that's why i told him it is impossible because even you. win this water but a leg of the predicted go but i mean will not allow it if you have been in iraq. doing many good thing so what. you will lose. sorry front 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. what our president did these did by did you ok you can bore. me and borg. at college in may on opinion this is the part of the day. but the goldberg go betterment or so

has appalled because it did not allow us to negotiate with the evidence. we accompany shareef to midday prayers in the mosque. feel. safe. muslims make up just 5 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. is a widow and used to run a small shop downtown she has 8 children since the battle erupted she hasn't seen 4 of them. again no one no one alive 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 1 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. before who have gone missing 3 girls and a boy were all in qur'an school when the fighting began. and the 4 children still with her are tormented by thoughts of what might have happened to the others were they seized by the i.a.s. fighters are they long dead. or missing. and. trying to hide by suffering from 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.

who go about going to go my request and instead ask him to give me more years to live the go no. one. can. do for. most of the children in the displaced persons camps don't 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 1st muslim senator in a quarter of a century she's critical of the way to turn take conducted the campaign to retake

or just. that that 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 there is not the kind of life we want this is not the kind of freedom that we want for children missing among 1000 people missing is not an achievement it is a moral disaster it's in funny just 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.

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 decision 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. wait wait wait wait wait. what sense i asked burst onto the scene the former archenemies the front and the government have become strategic allies. we lead a rebel leader who played a key role in dialogue with the government under successive presidents. god's only jaafari tells us of his determination to establish an atomic homeland for his people bangsamoro. negotiations lead to a deal codified in the bangsamoro organic law the basis for the new bangs and moro

autonomous region in muslim mindanao we could see on current government budget and islamic legal system. what is the reason why this model receives how it is because the vision just of this young people are never fed up. that's why i and then here come the group we're just more militant. stay him. of course we're in awe of the isis. and they isis. trying to find out. who can be. there to be our ally outside of the middle east. and. they believe. mindanao or a place. can't meet their eye because. the

muslims are not satisfied. and. we are allowed to visit the headquarters of the military wing of the liberation front. follows us as. 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 us but our committee really did a lot of people really become diminished that time that the isis with. his station. all the followers of the old joe in for their good will and the time that they had become bigger. says. 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. f. says it will disarm up to $30000.00 fighters once autonomy for the muslim majority region is implemented. what they have not been based that is core to them and we will not. nicol mission our forces and we will not give up our fight arms which we promise that a government. of. the rebels take us on patrol. out in the marshes here there are still fighters loyal to i asked 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. he serenus is even more significant process that's why i really thought us president the good thing because obi hisper always meant his actual. attribute if the words had been displaced that's why it really but i suppose that instead. we ask ourselves who does the land really belong to to the muslims whose ancestors settled on mindanao in the 13th 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 100 families live here they're all catholic. the only dust 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 in poland and what they can do to us. given the man. said in that book i know that's why i'm scared when our date is in town and not christians my. security. at. home or. me and madge look like they look at that mean i'm a good i don't let them was my 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 that we left leaves daily income because all i want to in our. life here. we don't want to be evacuated we don't want to live without direction and they've done

it on the muzzle into my back with the man them on and that's what i meant he said by. courtney one who works in. 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 1906. many here don't trust muslims for the love scene they live in but when muslims come to our village there's 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 gets on them but that's the attitude of muslims is very different from our christian attitude was the money in the in 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 man i was at the start simply

had not become the economic and once the muslims rule they will make us the slaves and steal our harvest. i'm going to welcome them. 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 territory was mayor here for more than 20 years. this is where he began his notorious war on drugs seemingly deploying the police as extra judicial hitman. estimates of the number of people killed ranged between 502-0000. the next morning we meet an old friend and confidant of the president his source

today so. he invited us to see his fish farm. thank. you. so this is what i think i might leave beyond what they already voted with their lawyer here because we think if you go for that if. 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 rob riggle 2 territories tenure as mayor. hayes used to raise some agrees we need him again at his waterfront resort he sends to tell is a man of action not words watch only what he does the action that it takes that is how you measure him don't measure him by what comes out from his small doing the president. when he was mayor here for more than 20 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 taxi drivers he would drive a taxi himself how about guns ready and drive and go to places where holdouts are

usually happening he once also will 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 i can do research does p.r. for do tear taban 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. less easily. forget. the racist says it's a very western point of view to accuse the territory of abusing human rights and

argues that to tertius so popular because he both pursues reconciliation and in bodies toughness as he demonstrated with respect to morale we. it is a strong signal to the bad guys that don't bear 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 reagan improve as a nation if we try to give more authority and power for the locals. as. we head back to murali to meet nordin look mom again. he shows us the small museum that his family sponsored.

and. the central exhibit is a painting depicting a battle between muslims and spanish colonizers who arrived in the 16th century and were the 1st christians to settle in mindanao. what happened in my our city is a continuation of the colonial war against our people. and that is what's happening now. and until now the circle i mean my city has the end result. and hopefully. we can resolve this peacefully without going through a war. like i said. look

man says he's going to run for deputy governor political developments over the coming months will prove decisive. oh. little little. 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 or 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.

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. look. at how 0. the event had been postponed several times so that president deter take could attend. but in the end he doesn't show who. will lead mindanao with the feeling that regional autonomy will not amount to much unless the muslim minority see real. prove months 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.

true the point of strong opinion some of your positions from international perspectives this was supposed to be the decisive week for exit but when how and possibly even whether the u.k. will leave the e.u. remains unclear now the timetable is partly up to brussels can westminster seal a deal that's our topic on to the point join us. the top 90 minutes on w. such

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