The intensified fighting began after a peace agreement was rejected by many politicians, and finally by the Philippine Supreme Court. Critics believe the agreement was unconstitutional since it would compromise the sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines. They added that the agreement would pave the way for the establishment of a separate Moro-controlled state within the territories of the country.

Angered by the rejection of the agreement, a rebel commander attacked military posts which produced civilian casualties. The government retaliated by launching offensives against the territories controlled by the rebels.

The fighting has not stopped. More than 610,000 people have been displaced already. The non-stop fighting has created several “ghost towns” in some provinces of Mindanao. The situation of refugees is deteriorating. Children are among those who are suffering the most.

Volunteer Sarah Matalam posts pictures of evacuation centers in Cotabato province:

Muslim groups want the government to stop the indiscriminate air strikes by the military. Like a Rolling Store uploads a report by a humanitarian mission which visited several evacuation sites in Mindanao:

“The offensives have led to mass evacuations. In the evacuation centers, the displaced persons suffer from inadequate facilities. Most of them have set up tents in whatever public place available. With heavy rains and flooding now common at this time of year, many child evacuees are sick with cough, cold, fever, and diarrhea. A number of evacuees have died of disease. There is also the trauma experienced by the evacuees, particularly the children.”

Dr. Carol Araullo, a member of the humanitarian mission, emphasizes that more help is needed:

“The hunger, sickness and generalized misery; the listlessness, the yearning to go back to their farms and homes safely; the appeal for a return to normalcy, for an end to the military restrictions over their comings and goings – these images and plaints became etched in our minds and hearts as we went from one evacuation center to another.

“Scores of victims of human rights abuses were interviewed: those wrongfully arrested, those beaten up because they were rebel suspects or so that they would point to the rebels/rebel sympathizers; those whose relatives had been killed or were injured in the course of the government’s drive to flush out the “rogue elements” of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front; those whose houses and other properties had been destroyed.

“After the teams had tallied the numbers of patients treated, families given relief goods and victims of human rights violations attended to, we came to the sobering conclusion that what the Mission had achieved was a mere drop in the bucket compared to the overwhelming needs.”

Journalist Edwin Espejo was affected by what he witnessed:

“Deep into the heart of the conflict, trails of destruction – burnt houses, abandoned homes and ubiquitous presence of checkpoints and war materiel – are eerie testaments of the war.

“Of course, we are living in troubled times and disturbing scenes are fast numbing one’s senses. Many would argue that journalists covering the conflict in Mindanao cannot afford to be emotionally attached to events unfolding before their very eyes.

“Yet one cannot totally dissociate his or her self from realizing that the war is affecting not only the combatants from both sides of the conflicts. It is also sublimely creating different levels of consciousness and commitment on journalists covering the war and affecting the quality of their reportage.”

Reckons of Spring writes that while Manila politicians are debating, the people of Mindanao are suffering:

“While many of the politicians and top government officials based in Manila are busy in expressing their contrasting opinions about the issues related to the “ancestral domain”, I wonder how the displaced locales of North Cotabato and neighboring provinces are faring. Do they have any food to ease their hunger? Do they have any medicine or medical attention to ease their pains? Can they ever sleep amidst the horror of the ongoing circumstances, or to simplify my question, can they find a shelter, no matter how temporary it is- for a night's sleep?”

The fighting is turning uglier everyday. An Al Jazeera team has learned that the government has been recruiting vigilantes to fight the rebels:

“Civilians are being given jobs normally the preserve of the police and army at an alarming rate across Mindanao. In North Cotabato Al Jazeera met some new recruits being put through their paces in a military-backed militia programme that normally takes three months. This training programme has been accelerated to just six weeks in order to fill what the authorities regard as a security vacuum.”

Watch the report of Al Jazeera:

And Part II of the report:

The rebel commander who is probably the most wanted man in the Philippines today insists in a video interview that it was government troops who first attacked the rebels.

Another controversy is the alleged involvement of US troops in the fighting. Himagsik Kayumanggi reports:

“US Special Forces were sighted inside the 64th Infantry Battalion Camp in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao. Bai Ali Indayla of the Moro human rights group Kawagip testified that the soldiers were engaged in covert operations, such as the supervision of drones or spy planes and predator missile strikes. This was confimed by Major Gen. Eugenio Cedo, then commander of the Western Mindanao Command. As usual, the US Embassy denied that the soldiers were involved in actual combat; they were only responding to the military request for aerial surveillance to determine conditions of the terrain and visibility, for “future civil-military projects,” to quote Rebecca Thompson, US Embassy Information Officer.”

Peace advocates want both parties – the government and Muslim rebels – to call for a ceasefire. There is an online petition asking the government to cease its military operations in Mindanao. A letter was sent to the Holy Pope to intervene. The Philippines is a Catholic-dominated country:

“We hope that Your Holiness could help us bring peace and justice to our brothers and sisters in Mindanao by expressing concern about the unfolding humanitarian crisis and appeal for restraint for the protection of all civilians, as well as for the opening of access for the provision of speedy humanitarian assistance to the affected population.”

Mindanao bloggers have vowed to blog for peace. Journalist Walter Balane has a message for bloggers:

“Blogging might not only be limited to blogging about Mindanao and its peoples but also helping the “voiceless” learn to blog so they, too, can blog about themselves.

“Of course it would be extremely difficult for existing Mindanao bloggers to access many of the areas safely and for the people in communities to approach which local bloggers can help them.

But bloggers must continue to try linking them and engaging them for mutual respect and understanding in an effort to connect more and more people.

Many of us who are already blogging about the voiceless must continue doing it and infect others to do the same.

We can focus on a Mindanao consciousness that is more inclusive, not exclusive.”

However, two videos have been uploaded in youtube showing the street fight between protesters and police. In the video, sound of gunfire is rather visible:

Beifeng tried to figure out the background of the confrontation by searching on the web. And it seems that the incident is related with the land acquisition compensation and the relocation of the Lungnan City after the earthquake. Here is a translation of Beifeng's investigation:

Land acquisition and city relocation

陇南位于甘肃南部，是全省唯一地处长江流域区域的地区。在地震前，该地区进行了大规模的城市建设，许多群众农民土地被征。为修建新区政府办公区，武都区整个东江镇及半个汉王镇的农田、居民居住区都被征用。有消息称，有许多人被开发商强行拆迁，许多人至今仍住在帐篷内。

在 5.12特大地震中，陇南伤亡300多人，成为继四川之后的最大灾区。2008年7月有谣言传出，当地市委、市政府以地质原因提出了将行政中心从武都区迁往成县的规划，引起早先武都区拆迁农民及全区居民的强烈不满。这个谣言出现后陇南市政在极短时间内就通过地方媒体进行辟谣的官方讲话，很快将事态安定了下来。但在辟谣后一周，陇南市的网民发现，陇南武都区因地质问题迁建的讨论文档已赫然挂在国务院行政网站上，而陇南市府官方并没有针对此事做进一步澄清，结果在短时间内激化了武都与成县人民的矛盾，自此开始，社会流言与网络相互谩骂不止。拆迁农民亦多次上访。

17号早上有消息传来，“陇南市搬迁到成县以已经国务院批准”，相信这则传言是引发群众再次上访的直接原因。

2008年11月17 日上午9时30分开始，甘肃省陇南市武都区东江镇30多名拆迁户再次集体到陇南市委上访，要求对陇南市行政中心搬迁后他们面临的住房、土地和今后的生活等问题做出答复。11月17日下午，大批群众和居民在陇南市委门前集体上访，陇南市委和相关部门的干部及时进行了接访，但未与上访人员意见达成一致。当晚，聚集和围观群众陆续增加，围堵至凌晨，未见到主要领导。由于未知原因，人群冲入市委院内，打碎玻璃，砸毁汽车，烧毁部分办公室，引发了这次次的严重冲突。

Police's trap

A secondary school youth from Wudu gave more background on this confrontation in the comment section:

原因是搬迁之事政府在很早以前就出来辟谣，告诉群众不要相信谣言，况且还为此逮捕了６名所谓的传谣者．更重要的是自从王义来武都做市委书记以后，拆了很多的民房，尤其是武都东江镇，毫不夸张的说一个很大的镇子被移为平地，数万人没了自己的家，王义给群众的答案是要把东江建成陇南新城，群众没有说什么他们相信政府，东江镇的居民全部住进了临时安置房，没有人抱怨，因为他们相信党会让他们过的更好！可是王义要一走了之，要那么多人永远无家可归，大家说人们能不愤怒吗？．５１２武都人民都没有被吓倒，１１月１７日武都人真的愤怒了，他们自发聚集在市委抗议，武都人是很文明的，开始只喊喊口号＂反对搬迁＂没人那么过激，然而在１７日夜群众愤怒了．在１７日夜有几个维持执安的成县武警把几个群众抓到市委大楼拳打脚踢，致使重伤，群众忍无可忍冲进大楼只是想救出群众，抓出打人者，可是没等人走近又是一阵警棒石块，这才越闹越大．到目前已有上百人被捕，很多人受了伤，生命垂危，更可气的是，调来的军车上竟写着＂反恐精英＂在抗震救灾在中人民解放军树立的深厚情谊被王义在一夜之间瓦解了！

Information blocked

Another comment urges people to help spreading the news:

到11月18日，至少已经有数十名无辜群众遭暴打致死。消息都封锁了，很多更真实的照片都发不出来。而在这个帖子里，竟然是政府的御用笔杆在那里乱打官腔，群众的感情他们根本就是在当做垃圾,而百姓的言论遭到大量的封锁，只能发布在少数冷门论坛里，根本无法引起外界重视。我们死了很多同胞，至少我们不希望他们死的太冤，在死后还要被冠以“暴民”的帽子。市委书记拆完了，招商了，引资了，要调离拍屁股走人了，很难不能让人相信他背后的动作。甘肃省委不明真相，封锁消息，这种大事连四百公里外的省会兰州都没有多少人知道！天理何在？我们的意见，我们的冤屈难道就这样被强权和官僚们压制！？无奈之下，只能希望大家口口相传，让更多的人知道真相。希望能够引起关注。就在刚才，大街上防暴警察还在向群众释放催泪瓦斯，官逼民反，民不得不反。天理何在，希望大家了解真相，让更多的人都了解真相，大家都转帮忙传一下。谢谢。

Jessyz tagged the following post as inspirations on her blog Chocolate Mints in a Jar:

Haiti Innovation said:

Some emergencies can be predicted. Every hurricane season, we can anticipate that Haiti will likely be hit with tropical storms. Others such as the collapse of a school in Petionville yesterday are unexpected tragedies. The community was, as is usually the case, the first to respond. They tried to remove as much of the rubble as possible but were hampered by a lack of heavy equipment.

Livesay Haiti Weblog confirmed that children were trapped in the rubble and urged people to “please pray for all involved”, as did Pwoje Espwa, who noted that rescue efforts were being hampered “by the area shanty towns surrounding the school and a steep ravine and the lack of any organized rescue infrastructure in country.”

Pwoje Espwa went on to write another post, this one dedicated to the memory of Mariella Delisca, one of the victims:

She was nineteen and a good friend of Nick Kocmich (Nico) who worked with us a couple of years ago. Nick is now in Port-au-Prince in charge of the Norwich House, a ministry of the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut. Mariella was part of the Norwich family and will be sorely missed. Our prayers are for her family, her friends and for all those who have lost loved ones in that terrible accident that we now hear has taken 82 lives.

The Blesh Family, who lives down the hill from the school, admitted that the situation was “terrible”, while RHFH Rescue Center had a friend close by who “was able to go see what was happening”:

He said there was a class with 47 students and 45 were killed. He saw several dead bodies being taken out of the actual building. They were putting then into the back of pickup truck and driving them away like that. We have heard today on the radio that the death toll is around 80. There were at least 500 students in the school.

Meanwhile, The Haitian Blogger was saddened that the United Nations has been allocating money towards “stabilization” rather than infrastructure:

My birthplace is Petion-Ville, Haiti. It is a suburb of the capital of Haiti, Port-Au-Prince. At a school named “La Promesse” (the promise) in Petion-Ville a three story school building collapsed yesterday at mid-morning. The whole building crumbled. The concrete fell on the approximately 500-700 children from kindergarten to high school attending the school on Friday.

At least 50 are dead. At this time Haitians are digging with their bare hands and working through the night to pull out the hundreds that remain trapped under the rubble.

When the UN occupied Haiti, the Haitian president Rene Preval asked for more tractors and bulldozers for building Haiti's infrastructure, not more tanks and guns. There are now 9,000 UN troops in Haiti. The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti's (MINUSTAH) approved budget (1 July 2008 - 30 June 2009): is $601.58 million (See Haiti MINUSTAH Facts and Figures)

That's $50.13 million per month, $1.64 million PER DAY.

Yesterday, if Haiti had more bulldozers, more children would have been rescued.

Babalu Blog linked to mainstream media reports that suggested the devastation was not on the scale of Gustav and Ike, but he noted:

It's still early and no doubt that areas along the southern coast of Camaguey and Las Tunas provinces got hammered last night. Let's hope and pray that Cubans won't go through the misery that they've already had to endure the past 2 months.

Fellow diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense echoed his concern:

This has been an especially hard year for Cuba, as Paloma is the third major hurricane to strike the island. Rebuilding after the previous storms, Gustav and Ike, is far from complete, and Paloma will undoubtedly add to the ever-present suffering in Cuba caused by almost 50 years of dictatorship.

In a follow-up post, Uncommon Sense wrote about the Cuban government's “preemptive rejection of any post-Paloma assistance from the United States”, a move that dashed The Cuban's Triangle's hopes for aid to get through to the people who most need it:

Cuba similarly rejected U.S. help after hurricanes Gustav and Ike ravaged the island this year, deciding it was better to make a diplomatic/political point against the United States and the embargo than to accept all the help that was offered in response to the tragedies. Perhaps the American government's moral standing was compromised because it refused to lift limits on how much help Cuban Americans could send to family members on the island — the limits are immoral, no matter the weather. But there was never any doubt that the American offers of help to Havana were sincere and somewhat extraordinary.

Maybe the embargo should be debated, especially with a new president soon to take office in the United States. And if the dictatorship releases political prisoners and holds free elections, the embargo should be scrapped.

On the island itself, Havana Times reported that “Cuba is once again in the eye of the storm”, and did a good job of posting regular updates.

Circles Robinson said that the island was in the midst of “that strange, eerie time just before a hurricane strikes”:

It’s been one heck of hurricane season. If Hurricane Paloma crosses the island as expected, it will be the third major storm to hit Cuba this year.

Instead of trying to concentrate on the prospects posed by the soon-to-be Obama administration in Washington, Cuba must once again put all its priority on Civil Defense.

In a post that Circles wrote for Havana Times, he noted that “it was dark when Hurricane Paloma struck Cuban soil at 7:27 p.m. on Saturday and the damage being caused by its winds and rain continues on into the wee hours”:

The latest of three major hurricanes hitting Cuba this season was dubbed Paloma (the dove) but entered the island like a fierce hawk on the south coast of Camaguey province near the town of Santa Cruz del Sur.

In his personal blog, he wrote bout the damage assessment that was to follow and at Havana Times, he posted information about damage and recovery efforts, adding:

The hurricane season official ends on November 30th and nobody in Cuba will be sad to say goodbye.

And Generation Y was of the opinion that Paloma only deepened the devastation that was already there:

Today the sarcasm of the name is more cruel. Paloma will flutter down over a wounded Island, sinking its beak into places that still show the wounds left by hurricanes in August and September. It has the bare neck of the vultures, as common as they are absurd, and the blackness of its feathers does not bode well.

As for nature, it is better not to try to understand her. She has both chaos and logic. At the moment she has touched us with her confusion and madness. Paloma will pass, leaving the Island in the same place, the destruction a little deeper and the dreams much farther off.

Baithak notes that:

Pishin, Ziarat, Qila Abdullah, Chaman, Loralai, Sibbi, Mastung are badly hit areas. According to the geological survey of Pakistan, the epicenter of the quake was in Chiltan mountains. Ziarat is the worst hit area.

As soon as the quake shook the region, a Wiki page on the quake was up and running, which is managed by a renowned blogger iFaqeer at Wiki Pakistan. The map of the affected region can be found at the CARE website.

Here is a video of the quake uploaded in YouTube by pakirajput:

Pakistaniat started with a chilling post sharing the facts of the incident:

Officials are saying there were two tremors, striking at about 0409 and then 0510 PST followed by at least three aftershocks.

Adnan shares his concern:

Things are not as good financially as they were in Oct 2005 but hopes are high and Insha Allah with help of (fellow) Pakistanis this disaster would be overcome. I can just hope all political parties, Lawyers, Army quit their personal differences for a moment and get ready to help victims. May Allah help us all and make us able to help others.

Changing up Pakistan shares a comment:

Today, yet another tragedy has occurred, this time on the brink of a harsh winter. Mohammed Hashim, a resident in Wam, one of the hardest hit villages, told the AFP, “We are doomed…We have nothing left to save our families from the cold in the night.” [..] Many of the residents had spent “the day in a desperate search for loved ones or burying the dead in mass graves, as aftershocks nearly as big as the initial quake pounded the landscape, sending rocks spewing from nearby peaks and sparking fresh panic.”

Lahore Metblogs tells about aftershocks in the post titled nature’s wrath taints an October in blood again:

Rescue efforts have been initiated to save as many people trapped under the debris and landslides as possible with Pakistan Army taking the lead. Powerful aftershocks are being felt around Quetta, and the epicentre in Ziarat Valley, which also happens to be the most picturesque of all places in the province.

Islamabad Metblogs narrates Ziarat's Mayor's plea:

“There is great destruction. Not a single house is intact.”

Our duty to our brothers and sisters in Balochistan calls us. We did whatever we could for the victims of October 08, 2005 Earthquake and our efforts didn’t go in waste. We make an appeal to unite again and show a greater level of unity, enthusiasm and love for our Muslim brothers and sisters in pain.

While in my own blog I highlighted two relief efforts trying to help the devastated region: an appeal by the IDSP director and another relief effort by an educational institute FAST whose students stepped up with a FAST-Relief collection drive to immediately deliver relief goods into the region.

More efforts can be located at Wiki Pakistan Earthquake Page which has been set up for the cause.