Philippine troops were locked in a standoff with hundreds of Muslim gunmen who killed six people and took at least 20 hostages yesterday in a bid to derail peace talks.
Armored troops surrounded Zamboanga after between 200 and 300 Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) gunmen entered six coastal villages on the southern port city’s outskirts before dawn, Philippine military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ramon Zagala said.
“They were trying to march on the [Zamboanga] City Hall and we cannot allow that,” he told a news conference in Manila, adding that two gunmen were arrested.
Photo: Reuters
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s government denounced the attack, which analysts said was designed to sabotage peace talks aimed at ending a 42-year-old rebellion that has claimed 150,000 lives.
“The authorities are responding to the situation in a manner that will reduce the risk to innocent civilians and restore peace and order to Zamboanga City at the soonest possible time,” Aquino spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a statement.
Loud explosions could be heard around the former colonial Spanish port of nearly 1 million people. Streets were deserted and shops, schools, government offices and the airport were shut down.
Heavily armed private security personnel and troops guarded the airport, hotels, banks and other buildings, a reporter said.
“We can still hear sporadic gunshots. We don’t know if this is from the government forces or from the MNLF,” city hall employee Ramon Bucoy said.
Zamboanga Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar said two security forces and four civilians had been killed, and 1,500 people had fled their homes.
The military and police said at least 20 people were taken hostage.
The attack came as the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) prepared to resume talks aimed at crafting a political settlement to be signed before Aquino leaves office in 2016.
After a preliminary peace deal was signed last year, the remaining negotiations aim to flesh out the power-sharing terms between the central government and the MILF, which is expected to head a new autonomous government, and the disarmament of its 12,000 guerrillas.
Rommel Banlaoi, executive director of the Manila-based security think tank Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence, and Terrorism Research, said the action was likely designed to sabotage the peace talks.
“[MNLF leader Nur] Misuari’s motive is to convey a message ... [that] the signing of the peace agreement between the government and the MILF will no longer guarantee the end of war,” he said.
“The fear now is Misuari could create one united front along with other threat groups against the Philippines,” Banlaoi added.
Misuari made a renewed call last month for an independent Islamic state in the south.
“To the Philippine government, I think our message is already quite clear — that we don’t like to be part of the Philippines anymore,” Misuari said in the message.
He called on his forces to “surround and secure all military, police and all other installations, airports, seaports and all other vital government and private institutions.”
The MNLF signed a peace deal in 1996, dropping its bid for independence and settling for autonomy, although its followers had not totally disarmed.
The government later said the agreement was a “failed experiment,” with many of the autonomous areas remaining in deep poverty.
It is not the first time Misuari has attacked Zamboanga.
In 2001, he and his followers took dozens of hostages and left many more dead in Zamboanga and in nearby Jolo Island, his home base.
The MNLF freed all the hostages after several days in exchange for free passage out of the city as Misuari fled to Malaysia, where he was arrested and deported.
He was held in a police camp near Manila until 2008, when the government dropped all charges against him.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was