Fighting began after the Supreme Court halted a historic deal to expand a Muslim autonomous zone in the region.
By Huma Yusufposted August 11, 2008 at 9:55 am EDT
Renewed fighting between Muslim rebels and the Army in the southern Philippines has caused at least eight deaths and forced nearly 130,000 people to flee their homes. The clashes have been sparked by a controversial deal to expand a Muslim autonomous zone in the region, which was created in 1996 as part of a peace accord between the Filipino government and Muslim rebels. The fighting highlights the sectarian tensions that plague the country.
According to the BBC, troops began their attack on Sunday, after Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels failed to leave North Cotabato Province, which is not included in the five-province Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Troops began their attack on Sunday, after Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in North Cotabato ignored a 24-hour deadline to leave the area.
Soldiers continued to bomb Muslim rebel positions for a second day on Monday.
They regained control of two villages, and are still aiming to regain 13 others, military vice chief of staff Lt Gen Cardozo Luna told the Associated Press.
At least one soldier and seven rebel fighters have been killed since the attack began.
The fighting has caused many families to be displaced, reports the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a leading Filipino newspaper.
Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno acknowledged the situation in North Cotabato has worsened as he lamented the government's failure so far to return thousands of families who have fled the fighting.... The fighting has displaced 18,633 families or 129,000 people in the affected areas, according to the Office of Civil Defense.
According to Asia News, trouble began last week when the Supreme Court issued an order to halt the signing of a deal between the government and MILF rebels following a wave of protests throughout the Philippines. Earlier this month, government and MILF negotiators were expected in Malaysia to sign an agreement laying down new borders for the ARMM. Acting on a petition filed by Christian politicians in North Cotabato who fear losing land and power to the Muslims, the Supreme Court stopped the deal, even though the government insisted it would end the 10-year-long conflict with the Muslim rebel group.
Last month, both sides agreed to expand an existing six-province Muslim autonomous region to include 712 villages, subject to the agreement of residents in a plebiscite within a year. Some local leaders complained however about the danger of electoral fraud.
Catholics expressed their concern that a deal between the MILF and the government would lead to renewed sectarian violence and vowed to obstruct the government's plan to conclude the peace accord.
The deal would have been a major step toward the peaceful resolution of a long-running Islamic insurgency, which has claimed some 100,000 lives, reported the BBC.
A larger autonomous region is something the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has sought for decades....
The MILF is the largest of several Muslim separatist groups battling the government in the predominantly Catholic country.
Formal talks between the government and the MILF began in 2003, after the rebel group, which is thought to have around 11,000 members, signed a fragile truce with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government.
The government had given approximately 1,000 MILF insurgents until Friday morning to vacate 15 villages in five North Cotabato townships that the rebels have occupied for more than a month. Although the MILF initially agreed to the withdrawal, rebels stayed put, prompting the government to launch an assault, reports the Associated Press.
MILF rebels claim, however, that the current fighting began when the government violated a cease-fire agreement with the rebels and went against the decided upon pullout process in the North Cotabato region, reports The Daily Tribune, a Filipino newspaper.
A commander of the separatist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) accused the government of treachery on the agreed process for the pullout of MILF forces from occupied territories in North Cotabato and said yesterday rebel forces were staying put "no matter what."
While all the negotiations and repositioning of the MILF forces were ongoing, the government forces were actually fortifying their strength and even maneuvering, according to the MILF....
The military, in turn, said instead of an orderly withdrawal, MILF units asked to vacate several occupied barangays in five towns in North Cotabato, shot three soldiers through sniper fire, and torched houses igniting fresh fighting as thousands of villagers fled their homes in terror.
Spurring further confusion about why fighting began Sunday, MILF rebels point out that their "repositioning" within the region was not in response to the deadline mandated by the Army and was instead in compliance with a joint resolution signed with the government on Aug. 1, reports GMA News.
According to the Associated Press, scheduled elections in ARMM continued despite the violence.
About 1.5 million Filipino Muslims in the autonomous region voted under heavy security Monday for a new governor, vice governor and other posts in the regional assembly. The five-province region has a history of insurgent and factional violence, but the fighting in nearby North Cotabato did not immediately affect the election.
An editorial in The Philippine Star, another leading newspaper, highlights the importance of the local ARMM elections in the context of renewed fighting between the government and MILF rebels.
Every electoral exercise in the ARMM is held with the hope that the winners can make the promise of Muslim autonomy work to bring lasting peace and prosperity to one of the most volatile and impoverished regions in the country....
[T]he people of the ARMM need better governance from their local officials. Those who are voted into office today should not betray the trust placed in them by their constituents. The people's participation in the elections, amid serious security threats posed by rampaging members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, will signify the ARMM residents' continuing belief that autonomy holds the promise of making their life better.