Expressions of Felt Marginalizations: Negotiating Reproductive Health in Mindanao's Armed Confli
Conflict is often referred to as a confrontation between individuals or groups, resulting from opposite or incompatible ends or means. It is “a social factual situation in which at least two parties (individuals, groups, states) are involved, and who strive for goals which are incompatible to begin with or strive for the same goal which can only be reached by one party and/ or want to employ incompatible means to achieve a certain goal (Wasmuth, 1996).
Another way of looking at it according to Lund is that "Conflict is present when two or more parties perceive that their interests are incompatible, express hostile attitudes, or [...] pursue their interests through actions that damage the other parties. These parties may be individuals, small or large groups, and countries." (Lund, 1997:2-2).
Conflict, as evidenced by actual atrocities, undeniably continues to be a major obstacle towards peace and eventually development. “It is interesting that the classic definition of Peace in philosophy is that it is the tranquillity of order, if things are in their place. If there is no order, then there is no peace. If there is no peace, then there is no development” (Samson Antonio Fr., 2008).
There are two ways of looking at conflict. One is that in any conflict, there are no winners, only losers. However, conflict is not only an outcome of change but it could be a catalyst for further change. If conflict is managed very well, it can bring to light underlying tensions, as well as help reconfigure power structures and resource distribution in ways that, amongst other things speed economic growth, consolidate democratization, improve welfare, and promote rights consciousness (Echavez Chona, 2008).
Furthermore, peace is not just the absence of war nor a reversion to the pre-war situation. Peace must be contextualized from where the conflict happens and from where the communities are coming from. There is peace when the multi-ethnic community can live together for progress and development. For people living in peace, there should be no presence of any armed group. It is a community where you can sleep soundly, trade with each other regardless of religion or ethnicity and doing so interdependently (Rivera Ma. Theresa, 2008). Peace shall begin from within oneself, within the family as well as the society (Cabrera Marione, 2008).
For many women, peace is also a result of development, where women are able to participate in community activities especially in livelihood initiatives. This springs from the need to have money in order to avoid harassment by their partners or spouses on account of inability to contribute to family income (Dagapioso Masie Faith, 2008).
Interestingly, good health is seen as a precondition fro peace. The two has a symbiotic relationship needed to achieve development. If people are healthy, they are at peace. And when this happens, development is felt (ibid).
The conference has provided the much needed avenue to explore the multi- dimensional facets of conflict both as a theoretical paradigm and as a lived reality. It revealed that its presence is widespread and pervasive as it is seen, felt, experienced and lived by people not only from developing countries but also from developed countries. It chooses no culture, no boundaries and it can take many forms.
FORMS OF CONFLICT
Armed conflict.
Evidences show that conflict resolved through weaponry and arms has the most widespread and destructive of all effects to people’s lives, especially to women and children. Armed conflict is resorted to sometimes because of ideological differences. When two opposing groups stand of different positions, the incompatibility is generally settled through violent means. This is particularly true to the conflict between the New People’s Army (NPA), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Abbu Sayyaf and other bands of outlaws operating in the outskirts of Mindanao and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
In the Philippines, the New People’s Army has a long history of armed conflict with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines. NPA is a paramilitary group fighting for a communist revolution since its inception in March 29, 1969 (Cuenca and Sotelo, 2008). The Armed Forces of the Philippines has always used violence in order to quell the NPA movement in the country (Occasiones Leny, 2008).
In many other parts of the world, armed conflict is real and has destroyed so many properties, liberties and opportunities.
Sex and gender-based conflict.
Gender-based Violence (GBV) can be defined as a “violence that is directed against the person on the basis of sex or gender. It may include act that inflict physical, sexual or mental harm, suffering, threats of such acts, coercion and other deprivations of liberty. Cultural norms and negative attitudes toward women reinforce the perpetuation of gender-based violence.
Sexual abuse and exploitation is the form of sexual activity in exchange for some form of goods or services security. Two principal categories of men who are involved in exploitative sex perpetrating this, they are, business men and soldiers. Two factors have increased the community acceptance of this activity of girls and women engaging in sexual intercourse with business men or soldiers. One, parents may “trade” girls to soldiers for monetary gain. Second, girls and women were noted as “wanting” to go with soldiers specifically due to their freedom of movement (Kiapi, Sandra, 2008).
The second form is general sexual violence including rape and defilement. These usually does not take place in camps, cases of rape are not common within the camp – when girls and women leave the camp to collect firewood, which is used to cook and for personal use or to sell in order to generate income, they can be attacked by soldiers (ibid).
While domestic violence has been perceived to be normal even prior to their displacement, this has been made worse by the fact that people live in camps, they are very frustrated with their lives. There is a lot of drinking alcohol and this has increased the rate at which domestic violence takes place in the camps (ibid).
Forced marriages happen in the relief camps. Girls get married before they finish their education. The girls’ parents think that they have some economic gain if they send their girl to live with the boy, and the parents of the boy would give something in return. Sometimes, parents actually force their children to get married so that they can get money or food, and this is also intended to reduce the household budget in feeding and caring for their children (ibid).
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) still exists although there are districts now passing a by-law prohibiting it which by now has score a 90% success rate (ibid).
Rape and other forms of sexual violence has been used many times as instruments of warfare. The female body is often used and viewed as a battlefield and site of struggle. It is estimated that between 20,000 t0 50,000 women, great majority of them are Muslims, were raped in various parts of Bosnia, in such a short period of time from 1996 to 1997. Sexual violence was used in Bosnia specifically as a weapon of demoralization against the entire societies. It is characterized by a violent invasion of the interior of the victim’s body, which thereby constitutes an attack upon the intimate self and dignity of the individual human being. It is a form of sexual violence that is carried out in order to humiliate or destroy the identity of the victim, and that is the way in which violence is constituted as a weapon of war (Manipon Aida Jean, 2008).
Among the women surviving in the relief camps, many of them suffered the most bestial forms of sexual violence – including rape, gang rape, mass rape, stripping, insertion of objects into their body, molestations. Majority of the victims were also burnt alive (Bali Kamayani, 2008).
IMPACT OF CONFLICT ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN
For a long time nothing had been said about violence against women in conflict until the magnitude of the injustice became too big and scars too deep to ignore. The picture is too bad that history perhaps was too horrified to depict the violence. Vivid accounts include “Wombs punctured with guns...rifles forced into vaginas, pregnant women beaten to induce miscarriages, fetuses ripped from wombs...gang rapes, rape camps and mutilation”. The scars of brutality were so extreme that survival seemed for some, a FATE WORSE THAN DEATH! (Ilagan Luzviminda, 2008).
Conflict is the breeding ground for mass violations of human rights (Ilagan quoting Amnesty International, 2008). In many of the studies presented, it showed that women and children, indeed, are at a more vulnerable situation of displacement and victimization in times of conflict. The impact of conflict on women and children are far-reaching.
PSYCHOLOGICAL.
Women and children confront horrifying experiences not only in relief camps or evacuation centers at the time of and after displacement but also, in manifold harmful degrees, at the moment the conflict sparks and violence bursts forth in their very presence as witnesses.
Many women testified to having witnessed several members of their family dying. They were dealing not only with the trauma of loss but the fear of facing the future with life’s savings completely destroyed (Bali Kamayani, 2009).
Children in armed conflict routinely experience emotionally and psychologically painful event such as the violent death of parent or close relative; separation from family; witnessing loved one killed or being tortured; displacement from home or country; exposure to combat; shelling and other life threatening situation; acts of abuse such as being abducted; arrested; held in detention; raped; tortured; disruption of school routines and community life; destitution and uncertain future. Because of these, many children experience psycho-social trauma (Gautam Madhav, 2008).
These experiences often cause them nightmares and sleep disturbances (Cabaraban Magdalena, 2008).
There is also anger, fear, resentment, self-hate, shame, depression, suicide, sleeping disorder, social isolation, and there is also a strain in community resources and support system (Kiapi Sandra, 2008).
Many of the children develop hatred, mistrust and scepticism. A 7-year old girl in Gujarat, India cannot understand why her losses were less important than others. Resentment is barely concealed in her eyes when she began questioning whether all Hindus are bad (Bali Kamayani, 2008).
In camps, these experiences of horrors during conflict are actually reinforced with a new set of difficulties they have to confront for survival.
Increased populations vulnerability to greater risks and health hazards including mental health is one obvious effect on women at the relief centers (Coronel Dennis, 2008).
Clearly, many of the residents leave their houses to find a safe refuge in camps to a void the skirmishes between the military forces and the rebel groups. The evacuation centers used are day care centers, mosques, schools, agricultural warehouses or make shift tents at the highways or on small patches of idle land where conditions are less human. Living in the evacuation centers placed the displaced families into conditions like overcrowding, lack of food, lack of water facilities, no privacy, extreme heat, miserable sanitation. Those who are in evacuation centers experience multiple risks eventually. These displacement risks include increased morbidity, community and social dislocation, forced insecurity, and loss of access to community resources such as health services (Gomez, 2008).
HEALTH IMPACT.
One of the most terrifying consequences of conflict on women and children is ill health. Health is a strong issue prior to displacement considering that it is an item not generally appearing in the priority list of governmental institutions. Upon displacement, it becomes even more challenged owing to the fact that health services are more scarce, thereby, increasing death statistics of women and children.
Women face a very unstable condition resulting to a mortality rate of 1,300 deaths per 100,000. Many get sick and continue to die even from preventable and curable illnesses at the refugee camps (Seng Shirley, 2008).
The general health implications on women in relief camps include disability and death, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV-AIDS, reproductive health disorders, problem pregnancies, miscarriage and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, depression and chronic illness, sickness. All these things have been found to exist as a mark that women in Northen Uganda have because of the kind of violence they face (Kiapi Sandra).
Emergency mode of response to conflict area entails food, shelter and clothing – the basic needs of the displaced population. However, the reproductive health needs may not always be a priority issue for relief operations. The social displacement therefore of women exacerbates their existing RH problems apart from creating new and emerging RH problems. An example of this would be the lack of provision for the menstrual needs of women during displacement (Coronel Dennis, 2008).
The condition at the evacuation centers is so inhuman that people get sick. The women and children are very vulnerable to health diseases as many got sick with fever, flu, skin diseases, cough, measles, diarrhea, typhoid fever,
tuberculosis and pneumonia. Some adults had cardiac arrest due to severe heat experience in the evacuation centers. Children suffered from pneumonia, diarrhea, and cough. Many women also experience pregnancy and birth delivery related concerns. New borns and young children suffer from malnutrition, not to discount the problem on child rearing, education about family planning and sexual health and other problems brought about by displacement and living in the evacuation centers (Gomez, 2008).
The poor general health status of the displaced population which was basically caused by poor diet and nutrition hard work and large families is also one of the factors that affected the women’s health. Even before being housed in relief camps, women and children already suffer from poor health conditions as a result of conflict.
As an example, the vulnerability of households in Compostela Valley, Agusan del Norte, Zamboanga del Norte, and North Cotabato during conflict is exacerbated by their greater risk to water borne diseases because they have a problem on safe potable water. On reproductive health services the study result identified incidence of reproductive tract infections due to unhygienic conditions during flight from conflict areas and in the evacuation center (Cabaraban Magdalena, 2008).
The common difficulties encountered by women related to personal hygiene were as follows: frequent and painful urination due to severe heat in the evacuation center, vaginal itchiness due to unclean water used for washing and lower abdominal pain. Other difficulties encountered included foul smelling discharges, delayed menstruation due to nervousness. Maintaining personal hygiene at the evacuation centers became difficult in women of reproductive ages when they have their monthly period. This is because of lack of sufficient supply of clean water. Birth planning, gynecological services, education about sexual health and difficulty in pregnancy are added to the list. Sometimes women give birth without medical assistance. As a result there are deaths of newborns, prevalence of upper respiratory tract infection, unrinary tract infection and other infectious diseases, unwanted pregnancy and abortion (Gomez, 2008).
Interestingly, there are also women engaged in actual combat due to their membership in some revolutionary groups. Either in the movement or during war in the battlefield, health services are wanting.
There are no health provisions for women in the armed revolutionary movement especially on menstruation and pregnancy. Apart from that, the women started redefining motherhood since most of them are in the field for combat. This raises therefore strong implications in the care and custody of their children. For them, motherhood is secondary to their role in the revolutionary movement. Their struggle for liberation and a better future is their contribution to the rearing and caring of their children. In short, the children are left in the watch of the masa, the grassroot support of the movement (Cabrera and Cuenca, 2008).
GENDER RELATIONS.
Another finding is that displacement also affects the men and gender relations in evacuation centers which further burdened the women in meeting the RH needs. It was found out that when men stay in the evacuation center, there is an increased aggression. Women tend to worry more about what to eat while men worry about what to do for the day. So they just huddle around in a corner and look for something and spend the whole day gambling and drinking and it increases their sense of aggression because they have nothing else left to do. It gives them also a lot of time to watch women while women fetch the water, while the women clean the house or while women fetch the water or while women look for food while the men just sit in a corner and watch them (Coronel Dennis, 2008).
There is a limited economic and social opportunities for the men and since they live in camps and they don’t go to school, so they indulge in all forms of violence including sex and gender based violence. Then of course, they indulge in alcohol. The idleness in the camps make them resort to drinking a lot and in the end they perpetuate acts of violence. This results to quarrels in the homes, also forms of quarrels over denial of sex to spouses, sell food or other household items. Generally the community has broken down since people live in camps, they their poverty level and lack of basic necessities make girls and some women more vulnerable to sexual exploitation by soldiers and other men who have money (Kiapi Sandra, 2008).
Many men died in the conflict. So, women became the father and mother at the same time. Women are also surviving under immense depression, insecurity, fear, and their mobility has been further limited (Bhanbhro Sadique, 2008).
Historical and empirical data show that women and girls are targeted because they are related to adversaries. They are skinned naked, humiliated, raped or taken away during wars. They are physically and economically forced to become sex workers as the case of the comfort women of Asia or to exchange sex for food, shelter safe passage or other needs. Their bodies became a means of exchange to procure for the needs of the family and recently modern wars have added a new subjugation when women are purposefully inverted with HIV. United Nations security reports would show that 90% of war casualties are civilians and among them are women, children and old people. Together with the children the women comprise 80% of the world’s refugees and internally displaced people. Yet the world pays little attention to their particular needs as women and children especially in conflict areas (Ilagan Luzviminda, 2008).
Women and Conflict; Women in Conflict
In analyzing the effects of war on women, the roles that they play during conflict are significant factors. Scholars on gender issues have categorized women in conflict situations as follows: Women as relatives of armed activists, wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, partners of those in struggle either by choice or compulsion and targeted by the state or by the opposing side. There are women relatives of state armed forces and state officials, Women militants and combatants, Women as shelter providers to combatants actively involved in struggle either as sympathizers or through coercion or who are participating because of wars of circumstance; Women as victims of sexual and physical abuse-could be innocent, uninvolved civilians belonging to any age group and caught in a cross fire between armed militants and armed forces; and also, Women as peace negotiators who take initiative in violence prone and actively violent conflicts (Ilagan Luzviminda, 2008).
The roles that women play during conflicts are indicative of the problems they are likely to encounter during conflicts. The difficult circumstances being faced by women both during peaceful times and in conflict whatever role they maybe playing have long been in existence and the magnitude increases through time.
Gender concerns are as imperative to development during times of conflict as during peace time the international community has always given importance to these concerns as proven in the many conventions and international covenants which spell out the gaps that need to be addressed in gender mainstreaming. Specific states should institute enabling mechanisms to operationalize these covenants and ensure that all of these are implemented. The institutionalization of these mechanisms would require data and in depth studies on the real experiences of women esp. during and after conflicts. Policy makers also continually need updated gender sensitive inputs especially on subjects of conflict prevention, resolution and post conflict rehabilitation (Ilagan Luzviminda, 2008).
This is the challenge to all but much is also demanded from the researchers. There is a need to possess a gender sensitive perspective with special bias in looking at specific effects of conflicts on women and children. It is imperative that we scrutinize the reproductive rights of women and how they are violated during times of conflict and most of all the contribution of women in conflict resolution and policy development should be elicited (ibid).
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(Photo grabbed from UCANEws through google)
