ZAMBOANGA CITY, 8 March 2007 — Army troops yesterday pulled out from several southern villages following clashes with Muslim separatists that may have claimed at least 20 lives, officials from both sides said.
Maj. Gen. Nehemias Pajarito, commander of the army’s 6th Infantry Division, said he ordered troops to leave the villages in Midsayap town of North Cotabato province to avoid a further escalation of violence with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The MILF rebels and the military, which have been observing a 2003 truce despite occasional clashes, have accused each other of initiating the fighting on Monday and Tuesday in Midsayap, 890 kilometers (550 miles) south of Manila.
Rebel and government representatives met Tuesday afternoon with Malaysian-led truce monitors after the clashes subsided.
While the fighting stopped, spokesmen from both sides swapped claims of having inflicted the biggest damage.
Regional army spokesman Lt. Col. Julieto Ando said in an interview that at least 26 rebels had been killed in the fighting, but only 17 bodies were recovered. General Pajarito later said said that the body of another guerrilla was discovered yesterday, raising the number of dead rebels to 18.
Eid Kabalu, the MILF spokesman, gave a higher MILF death count at 19 and claimed that 52 army soldiers were also slain. “Our forces killed at least 52 government soldiers and it is up to the military whether to admit it or not,” Kabalu said.
“That’s MILF propaganda,” retorted Ando, claiming that only one soldier was slain and four more injured in the fighting.
Midsayap Mayor Romeo Arana said soldiers have left three villages at the center of the conflict, and that he was overseeing the return of about 4,500 residents who had fled the fighting.
Von Al Haq, the MILF co-chairman of a joint cease-fire committee, said by telephone that the MILF, the military and truce monitors were preparing to travel to the area to verify the withdrawal.
“Let us see how sincere the army is,” he said. He said the fighting occurred in villages on the fringe of the Liguasan marsh, where MILF members moved last month under an agreement to redeploy away from a highway, after clashing with the military in January.
“We’re almost pushed to the wall,” Al Haq said, adding that the fighting broke out after soldiers - who had provided security for a US military team on a medical mission over the weekend - encroached into the MILF position, with only 300 meters (1,000 feet) separating the two forces.
The Suara Bangsamoro party-list group yesterday slammed the military offensive, which it said has been affected villagers.
“The brutal military operations have forced hundreds of Moro families to evacuate from their homes and farmlands,” Abubakar Uy, the group’s secretary-general in southern Mindanao, told Arab News.
Zaynab Ampatuan, another official of the group, said it’s about time that government officials rein in their troops.
“The relentless militarization in North Cotabato has resulted in human rights violations against civilians, mostly Moros,” Ampatuan said.
Al Haq, in statement posted on the MILF website Luwaran.com, said soldiers took “a seemingly premeditated move” to drive Muslims away from the town and deprive them of their claim to their ancestral territory - a key issue in stalled peace talks.
Ando, the military spokesman, accused the MILF of attacking soldiers who were merely manning their detachments, and spreading rumors that the military was about to strike.
“We have no interest in operating there,” he said.
In January, MILF guerrillas in a nearby village attacked pro-government militiamen and their families as they were harvesting rice, military officials said.
The 11,000-strong rebel group has been fighting for Muslim self-rule in the overwhelmingly Christian country for more than three decades. The two sides hope to resume Malaysian-brokered peace talks soon to discuss an accord that would grant Muslims broad autonomy.
But Jun Mantawil, an MILF peace panel official, said in a statement on the MILF website that while both sides were working to revive the talks, the outcome of the negotiations was uncertain because the government was offering very little territory to the guerrillas.(With a report by the Associated Press)
