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July 27, 2006

Philippines: Muslim Rebels Fighting Among Themselves - 10 Dead

News reports from Sun Star and inq7.com relate that running battles between rival members of the Muslim rebel group MILF which began on Saturday (22 July) have re-ignited, and the current death toll is ten.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) came into existence in 1977, based on the southern island of Mindanao. This group wishes to secede from the Philippines but has been involved with lengthy peace talks with the government, about finding a settlement to accommodate the needs of the Bangsamoro or Moro peoples who live in Mindanao. These peace talks have been sponsored by Malaysia and are supported by the US.

In December there were fears from the army that MILF were planning an armed offensive, similar to one which had been mounted on the island of Jolo by the other Muslim rebel group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) which lasted from November to January.

An earlier peace agreement between the Philippines government and Muslim rebels on Mindanao led to a deal being signed on August 30,1996. By that time, estimates of deaths from fighting between the government and Muslim rebels ranged from 125,000 to 200,000. Both MILF and MNLF leaders signed the agreement in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Part of the terms of the agreement led to the formation of a new semi-autonomous region in the south called ARMM. The first governor of this region was Nur Misauri, leader of MNLF, but in November 2001, Misauri led a rebellion, attacking an army base on Jolo which killed 100. He is currently in a Philippines jail after being extradited from Malaysia, where he had fled after the uprising.

Maguindanao province is located in the west of the southern island of Mindanao, and is part of a region entitled the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or ARMM, which was officially inaugurated on November 6, 1990. Maguindanao is a small province, covering only 5425 square kilometers. It has a population of about 800,000. It is mountainous in the west, and in the east it shares territory with the Cotabato plains.

It is in Maguindanao, in the town of Guindulungan, that the fighting between rival factions of MILF began. Yesterday, Sun-Star reported that the army has claimed that what is happening is a turf was, and is over "zakat collection". Zakat is a system of taxing, where Muslims donate a proportion of their income (usually) to a mosque. This tax varied according to the property owned by a person.

The factions were thought to have been led by two individuals, Kumander Sinsuat and Kumander Silongan. However, the official spokesman for the MILF, Eid Kabalu, said that the reasons for the fighting in Maguindanao had nothing to do with zakat. He said: "The MILF has no authority to collect zakat," and explained that the fighting is happening because of a family vendetta, or rido.

According to the spokesman, the fighting was happening between MILF commanders Talio Macalpan and Kayob Pual, and their dispute concerned ancestral land.

Kabalu claimed that the fighting had stopped on Monday, after the central committee of MILF had intervened and ordered the factions to cease the dispute. He also said that residents in the area had started to return by Monday.

On Tuesday, reports from Khaleej Times, Reuters AlertNet and Deutsche Presse-Agentur via Monsters & Critics said that the death toll from the fighting had reached six.

On Monday evening, an eight year old boy had been hit by a stray bullet and that appeared to have brought the fighting to an end. The police chief of Miguandanao, Lumala Gunting, told Reuters: "Based on our investigation, the fighting began on July 19 when the group of Commander Talio Macalpan ambushed the forces of Commander Kayob Pual. The clashes ended late on Monday after a boy was hit by a stray bullet."

The factions had agreed to a truce late on Monday, after the Malaysian-led peace monitors, who have been shepherding the peace talks, agreed to act as mediators between the rival factions.

The talks between MILF and the government had stalled in May, as the MILF group had demanded a larger area of land for a Bangsomoro homeland from Manila. The MLF chief negotiator had said on Saturday that he did not expect the talks to resume for another three months.

The current fighting which broke out between factions took place earlier today in the village of Balanakan, where a group of MILF soldiers were attacked by militiamen. The fighting subsequently spread to the nearby village of Liong in Datu Piang town.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said: "The fighting is fierce. There is shelling and the militia are attacking our forces. MILF soldiers are responding to the attacks. We still don't know if there are casualties on both sides."

The MILF has blamed this bout of violence to militia loyal to Maguindanao's current governor, Andal Ampatuan. A roadside bomb had been aimed at killing the governor last month, and five people had been killed. Military and police officials blamed MILF for the bombing, and demanded that the group surrender local MILF leader Jamil Ombra and his deputy, Sajid Pakiladato. The two were not handed over.

There is some conflict in the reporting of this story. The claim that militia loyal to Andal Ampatuan had started today's fighting is contradicted by Inq 7, which reaffirms the view that the fighting is a resumption of the "turf war" between factions within MILF.

According to Eid Kabalu, who was citing accounts given by MILF field commanders, casualties had been suffered by both factions. The reports are unclear, but the figure of ten dead could be the toll for today's fighting, not a cumulative figure of deaths since the in-fighting began.

The ARMM Social Welfare Secretary, Ruby Sahali, said 250 families had been displaced by the current fighting, and suggested the dispute should be resolved soon as it affected MILF and its supporters.

The mayor of Guindulungan, Antao Midtimbang, has sent envoys to the location of the current fighting. The mayor said that the fighting was happening in the hinterlands of Guindulungan, about 18 miles from the highway.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 27, 2006 2:48 PM

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