ZAMBOANGA CITY, 10 August 2006 — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday accused pro-government militias of violating a three-year-old cease-fire agreement again by attacking a separatist outpost in the southern Philippines on Tuesday.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said yesterday that militias working for Maguindanao provincial Gov. Ampatuan attacked rebel positions in the towns of Mamasapano and Shariff Aguak, sparking a gunbattle.
“The militias assaulted MILF forces in Maguindanao without apparent reason. The attack sparked a fire fight and only stopped after the Malaysia-led truce observers intervened,” he told Arab News.
He said the cease-fire monitors who were sent to the scene of fighting were from Brunei.
Kabalu said MILF officials have not received any report of casualties on their side so far.
“We have no reports yet if there were casualties in the fighting, but we will always maintain a defensive position.”
He said MILF Chairman Ebrahim Murad ordered rebel forces to stay vigilant and defend themselves if militias will attack again. The latest fighting broke a fragile cease-fire between militias and rebels.
Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesman of the Philippine Army’s 6th Infantry Division stationed in Central Mindanao, said the military had nothing to do with the latest fighting. He said armed men believed to be MILF rebels entered the militias’ position in the area, a claim the MILF denied.
“There’s an agreement recently specifying the boundaries of militias and MILF which the latter violated. Now, we deployed soldiers near the buffer zones as deterrent force strong enough to drive away rebels,” Ando said.
Ampatuan’s militias and rebels also clashed in at least 5 towns in Maguindanao late last month, leaving more than 30 people dead. The last fighting in Maguindanao was on July 27 when militias attacked a group of MILF fighters in Datu Piang town with mortar bombs.
The MILF said the militias were trying to avenge an assassination attempt on Ampatuan in June.
Five people were killed when a bomb exploded near the Shariff Aguak town public market as the governor’s convoy passed. Ampatuan escaped unhurt but one of his nephews was killed.
Police and the military have accused the MILF of masterminding the attack and ordered the arrest of two senior rebel leaders Jamil Ombra, commander of the 105th Base Command in Camp Omar and his deputy Sajid Pakiladato.
The MILF denied the accusations and refused to surrender the duo. Sporadic clashes have disrupted the truce but most of these have been caused by feuds between pro-government militias and MILF field units and not enough to cause the cease-fire agreement to collapse.
MILF and government officials involved in peace talks remain upbeat that a political settlement to the decades-long conflict would be signed soon.
The MILF has it is willing to drop its demand for a separate Islamic state provided that a genuinely autonomous setup is established.
Meanwhile, government troops captured five suspected Abu Sayyaf militants yesterday following a gunbattle on southern island of Jolo.
The military has been hunting down Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and Indonesian terror suspects, officials said.
It was not clear if Janjalani or members of the Jemaah Islamiyah organization — all targets of ongoing US-backed offensives — were among a group of Abu Sayyaf men who clashed with troops in Jolo.
members of the 3rd Philippine marine brigade near mountainous Patikul town, whose thick jungles are a known lair of the rebels. Marine forces stumbled on a group of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas at dawn, setting off a 30-minute gunbattle, military spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said. There was no immediate report of casualties. The Narines recovered an assault rifle and a pistol left by the rebels and later separately captured five men near the vicinity, Bacarro said without elaborating. (With input from Inquirer News Service)
