At least 48 soldiers and civilians and scores of Muslim rebels have been killed in the southern Philippines in a week of fighting triggered by the collapse of a peace deal, the government said yesterday.
About 200,000 people have fled their homes to escape the violence, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro told reporters yesterday.
At least 44 people, most of them civilians, were killed when renegades from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacked coastal towns in the volatile south on Monday, days after a territorial agreement between the government and the rebels was halted by the Supreme Court.
Teodoro said at least four soldiers and an unknown number of the guerrillas have been killed in military operations against the renegades since then. Over 50 soldiers have been injured, he said.
Some military sources have said up to 100 rebels may have died.
It is the worst violence for years in the Mindanao region of the Christian-majority nation where the rebellion has prevented any significant development of some of the richest mineral and hyrdrocarbon resources in Southeast Asia.
The government has blamed two MILF commanders for the violence, and said they cannot be controlled by the main leaders. It has said the territorial agreement will have to be re-negotiated, which the MILF has said is not possible.
“I’m in favor of another agreement, whatever it takes to stop the conflict, but you know it just cannot have as a tradeoff the criminals going scott-free,” Teodoro said.
“They [the MILF] must show good faith to try to stop the conflict from escalating and that good faith is to surrender the two who perpetrated these atrocities and stop condoning it at least, if not encouraging,” Teodoro said.
The MILF has said handing over the two commanders to the military is out of the question.
Meanwhile, the MILF chief said yesterday he had asked Malaysia to revive the stalled peace talks with Manila to end weeks of brutal fighting.
But Ebrahim Murad, MILF chairman, said that his group still reserved the right to resume its large-scale rebellion if the peace process collapses.
“War is among the options. It is part of the struggle. The MILF is determined to continue that struggle,” Murad said in a meeting with reporters at a MILF camp near the town of Sultan Kudarat in the southern Philippines.
Murad said he sent a request two days ago to Malaysia, which has been hosting peace negotiations between the Philippines and the MILF.
However, Kuala Lumpur was yet to respond to Murad’s call.
Murad said the MILF, which has been waging a separatist war for an Islamic state in the southern Philippines for four decades, still wanted the peace talks to continue despite the renewed fighting.
The peace talks stalled after the Supreme Court on Aug. 4 suspended a draft peace agreement for the creation of an expanded Muslim autonomous area in the south. Since then, MILF forces, led by commanders Umbra Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar have attacked towns, looting and burning homes and sending 220,000 people fleeing.
Military operations in the south are continuing against the forces of Kato and Macapaar who is also known as Commander Bravo.
Although the military has said they are targeting only Kato and Macapaar’s forces, Murad said other MILF units were also being attacked.
In Geneva, the Red Cross helped around 900 trapped civilians to escape from the combat zone this week on Mindanao, the organization said on Friday.
Civilians had been caught up in clashes between the Philippines armed forces and MILF fighters near Datu Piang, in Maguindanao province, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Red Cross delegates accompanied the group to a nearby evacuation center where they were to stay for the time being, a statement said.
“Thanks to our longstanding presence in the Philippines and the trust gained among all those involved in the conflict, both the armed forces and the MILF agreed quickly to let us evacuate the villagers,” said Felipe Donoso, head of the ICRC’s delegation in the Philippines.
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