PIKIT, 13 February 2003 — Separatist rebels and the military said yesterday that more than 70 people had been killed in fighting in the southern Philippines, which has displaced thousands of civilians.

Rebels were also accused of blacking out large areas of the southern Philippines and of mounting hit-and-run attacks.

Relief official Joel Maglunob said some 30,000 civilians had fled the mainly-Muslim area and were mostly living in makeshift evacuation centers.

President Gloria Arroyo ordered the military to capture the key camp of the separatist group and the government charged that the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) had been sheltering outlaw groups in the forested Buliok complex in the central part of Mindanao Island.

She said the offensive was “not directed against” the MILF but that soldiers were under orders to “defend themselves against any force blocking their mission to eliminate criminal gangs in Mindanao.”

The once-bustling streets of Pikit town were subdued and quiet, with only a few people seen on the streets.

Some of the villagers who fled the fighting were sheltered in a half-completed government grain warehouse. The evacuees, mostly women and children, lay on the dusty floor with their chickens and ducks penned nearby.

In Manila, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes justified the renewed offensive — to “capture and occupy” the Buliok Complex near the Liguasan Marsh — by saying that it was prompted by the refusal of MILF leaders to attend the cease-fire committee meeting set at noon yesterday.

He also said this was what the “silent majority” wanted.

“We must emphasize that we are running after these lawless elements because this is what the people of Mindanao want. The people of Mindanao are tired of conflict, they are tired of terrorist actions perpetrated by these lawless elements,” Reyes said.

The fresh violence occurred as the government and MILF were preparing for peace talks in Malaysia after signing a cease-fire agreement two years ago.

Southern military chief Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya said that the fighting, involving several thousand troops and MILF separatists, had left an estimated 60 MILF rebels dead based on field reports.

According to military chief of staff Gen. Dionisio Santiago, three soldiers were killed and 18 others wounded in the clashes which began on Tuesday after the MILF fighters tried to break out of a military cordon on the outskirts of Pikit town near the southern city of Cotabato.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu placed the number of casualties at 10 soldiers and one rebel dead.

Intermittent shelling and small arms fire could be heard around Pikit. At an army camp in the town, troops prepared to deploy but said they had no idea where they would be sent.

Arroyo on Tuesday called a suspension of the fighting in deference to Eid Al-Adha. But the military charged that the MILF forces continued to harass them.

Government sentiment further hardened when the MILF boycotted the meeting in Cotabato City to discuss ending the fighting.

“We cannot hold talks when the troops on the ground are fighting,” Kabalu said, insisting that the military must pull out of the area before talks could resume.

Presidential envoy Jesus Dureza said he would pursue “back-channel talks” with the rebel leaders instead.

Cotabato City and nearby provinces were without electricity after suspected MILF rebels blew up two steel transmission towers overnight. The MILF denied they were behind the blasts.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes deplored the MILF decision to boycott the truce talks, saying it was “clear evidence of a lack of sincerity on their part.”

Reyes said in Manila that the military were after two outlawed groups that were allegedly hiding in MILF territory.

They included two MILF commanders suspected of a bombing that killed 15 people in December as well as members of the Pentagon group, a local kidnap gang of alleged former MILF members. (Agencies)