MILF Fighting Erupts In Southern Philippines

COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 06 Mar) – Fierce fighting between government troops and Muslim rebels broke out in the southern Philippines, leaving at least 2 people dead, as hundreds of villagers flee their homes.

Two army soldiers were also wounded in the clash that erupted before midnight in North Cotabato’s Midsayap town after some 300 fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) simultaneously attacked two military posts, said Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division.

“One of our soldiers is killed and two others are wounded in the rebel attack. The MILF violated the truce. They harassed our troops without provocation. We have filed a protest with the government peace panel about this attack,” Ando told the Mindanao Examiner.

He said MILF leader Amiril Umbra Kato was behind the attack.

But the MILF denied the accusations and said the fighting broke out after troops encroached inside rebel territories in the village of Lomobog and Cabigasan.

“The soldiers are to be blamed about all these skirmishes. They encroached inside our areas and it is a violation of the cease-fire agreement. We have also filed a protest and called on the international truce observers to investigate the fighting,” a rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said in a separate interview.

He said government planes bombed MILF targets in the area and killing one rebel.

Kabalu said hundreds of villagers have fled their homes for fear that the fighting would escalate. “Muslim villagers are fleeing; hundreds of them have abandoned their homes because of the military offensive,” he said.

The fighting erupted just as government and rebel leaders were trying to resume peace negotiations in an effort to end more than three decades of bloody battle in the South, home to about 4 million Muslims.

Manila opened up peace talks in 2001 with the MILF, which is fighting for independence in the troubled, but mineral-rich Mindanao island.

Malaysia is brokering peace talks between the Filipino government and the MILF, but negotiations ended in September in Kuala Lumpur with both sides failing to sign any agreement on the most contentious issue -- ancestral domain.

Ancestral domain refers to the rebel demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland. It is the single most important issue in the peace negotiations before the rebel group can reach a political settlement.

The ancestral domain covers the whole of Muslim autonomous region and other areas in Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes. And even Palawan Island in central Philippines.

Government peace negotiators previously offered the MILF the Muslim autonomous region, which is composed of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi which are among the poorest in the country torn by strife and clan wars since its creation in 1989. The MILF rejected the offer. (Mindanao Examiner)