Fighting Continue In Jolo Island

Scenes in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, where troops are battling Moro rebels and Abu Sayyaf terrorists in two fronts. (Mindanao Examiner Photo Service)

JOLO ISLAND – President Gloria Arroyo has ordered the Philippine military to pursue Moro National Liberation Front rebels, blamed for a spate of attacks in Jolo island.

Dozens of people were reported killed and injured in a series of mortar attacks by Moro National Liberation Front rebels and suspected Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Filipino island of Jolo, officials said.

Officials said the rebels attacked several military posts in the town of Panamao, Parang and Talipao. One mortar bomb exploded near a government building, killing a child and wounding another villager. But the military said there could be more civilian casualties in the fighting that began last week.

At least 11 government soldiers were allegedly killed and about a dozen more wounded, many seriously, when rebels attacked a military post in the village of Tayungan with mortar bombs and ambushed a military truck transporting troops.

Two rebels were also killed and many wounded in the weekend clashes.

Army Major Eugene Batara, a regional military spokesman, said the rebels, under Khabir Malik, also rained mortar bombs on the headquarters of the Philippine Marines in the village of Seit last week.

“Malik’s group fired at least 5 rounds (of mortars) at the marine base, but only one exploded inside the (headquarters). The rebels also fired three more rounds toward the Panamao municipal hall (building). Security forces are in control of the situation,” Batara told the Mindanao Examiner newspaper.

Batara said the motive of the attacks were unknown, but troops last week clashed with suspected Abu Sayyaf militants allegedly aided by MNLF rebels in the village of Buanza in Indanan.

He said security forces have occupied a major MNLF camp under Malik in Bitan-ag village in Indanan town, but the rebels said they abandoned the base even before troops could arrive.

“You would be so stupid to stay in the camp that you know would be targeted by military offensive,” one rebel commander said.

Major General Ruben Rafael, the island's military chief, condemned the attacks and said security forces will suppress "this lawlessness perpetrated by this group." He said: "The (exact number of) civilian casualties are still unknown as of this report."

Other reports in Jolo said Abu Sayyaf militants kidnapped at least 8 people, including two soldiers, in Parang town, but this could not be independently confirmed.

The fighting forced thousands of villagers to flee their homes. Many are staying in different refugee shelters in Jolo. Government schools were also converted into temporary shelters.

Hundreds of refugees were also staying in Panglima Mamah Elementary School in Tag-bak village in Indanan town and many of them blamed provincial officials for failing to help them.

“It is so difficult here, as you can see, there is not even clean water here and provincial officials should look into our situation here,” one refugee, Usman bin Abubakar, told the Mindanao Examiner. Fighting erupted last week in Talipao town near a major MNLF stronghold where troops raided a Jemaah Islamiya hideout and captured three local terrorists.

But an Indonesian bomber Umar Patek and a senior Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, had escaped the raiders in the village of Kanlimot. One soldier was also wounded in a separate this month in Bakong village in Patikul town on the other side of the island.

Besides Patek, soldiers were also hunting down Dulmatin and Malaysian terror suspect Zulkifli bin Hir and other Jemaah Islamiya militants hiding on the island under the protection of the Abu Sayyaf. Jakarta tagged both Patek and Dulmatin as behind the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australian holiday-makers.

While Zulkifli bin Hir, an engineer trained in the U.S. allegedly heads the Kumpulun Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM) terrorist organization and is a member of Jemaah Islamiya central command.

Washington offered as much as $10 million reward for the capture of Dulmatin and $ 5 million for Zulkifli and Hapilon and another $1 million bounty for Patek.

The latest fighting broke out ahead of a planned peace advocacy forum in Jolo island on the government peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group. The MILF, which broke away with the MNLF, is fighting the past three decades for a separate homeland in Mindanao.

The MNLF rebels, under Nur Misuari, signed a peace agreement with Manila in September 1996. After the peace agreement was signed, Misuari, became the governor of the Muslim autonomous region. But despite the agreement, there was a widespread disillusionment with the weak autonomy they were granted.

Under the peace agreement, Manila would provide a mini-Marshal Plan to spur economic development in Muslim areas in the south and livelihood and housing assistance to tens of thousands of former rebels to uplift their poor living standards.

Many MNLF members were disgruntled with the peace deal, saying, the Arroyo government failed to comply with some of its provisions and uplift their standards of living. They accused Manila of failing to develop the war-torn areas in the south.

And in November 2001, on the eve of the elections in the Muslim autonomous region, Misuari accused the government of reneging on the peace agreement, and launched a new rebellion in Jolo island and Zamboanga City, where more than 100 people were killed.

Misuari then escaped by boat to Malaysia, but had been arrested and deported to the Philippines. (mindanaoexaminer.com)