MILF Fighting Erupts In South RP

MAGUINDANAO (Mindanao Examiner / 27 Jan) – Government planes, backed by combat helicopters and ground forces, assaulted Saturday lairs of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels suspected of attacking farmers and army-led militias in the southern Philippines.

Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF’s chief peace negotiator, said one rebel was killed and another wounded in the attacks which started on Friday on a village in Midsayap town in North Cotabato province.

“The bombings killed one rebel and wounded another fighter. This is blatant violation of the cease-fire. We are protesting the military attacks,” Iqbal told the Mindanao Examiner.

He said the fighting erupted after armed militias and Christian landowners tried to drive away local Muslim villagers, some of them members of the MILF. He said the soldiers sided with the militias and attacked rebel forces, sparking sporadic, but fierce clashes.

Iqbal said the MILF rebels in the area were in heightened alert. “They were ordered to be in alert and defend themselves from these military attacks,” he said.

Col. Julieto Ando, a spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, denied the accusations and said the rebels attacked farmers and militias, triggering a firefight that killed one person and wounded one more.

“It was the rebels who started this fight. They attacked people who were just harvesting coconuts. The MILF violated the truce and we will file a protest with the government peace panel,” Ando said in a separate interview.

He said thousands of civilians have fled their homes in two villages for fear that they would be caught in the cross-fire or held hostage by rebels. “Many people have fled their homes and we are trying to protect the villages from the trebles,” he said.

Iqbal said at least 5 villages have been bombed by military forces. The MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, is currently negotiating peace with Manila, but despite a cease-fire accord signed in 2001, sporadic clashes still continue in many areas in the troubled region. (Mindanao Examiner)