update...the ceasefire is useless??
21 killed in clashes between AFP, MILF
But KL official says truce has not collapsed despite fighting
THIRTEEEN Muslim separatist rebels and eight soldiers were killed in fierce fighting that erupted in two towns in Maguindanao, violating a two-year-old cease-fire agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Three soldiers were also abducted and two are still missing as the MILF guerrillas virtually overran the outpost in the town of Mamasapano, Maguindanao, military officials said.
Two soldiers were also wounded in the attack, which began late Sunday when some 100 MILF rebels, armed with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, swooped on the outpost.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, reported that the cease-fire between MILF rebels and government soldiers, which it is helping monitor the cease-fire in Mindanao, had not collapsed despite clashes in which 21 people died.
“We don’t consider it a breakdown of the cease-fire. It could be an isolated incident,” Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak told a news conference.
“As far as we are concerned the cease-fire still remains,” said Najib, who is also defense minister.
It was not clear how the clashes would affect peace talks, scheduled to resume early this year, but Najib said, “The exploratory talks are continuing.”
Some 50 security officials from mainly Muslim Malaysia, Brunei and Libya are in the southern Philippines as part of an international team monitoring the cease-fire.
A Malaysian team was proceeding to the site of the fighting along with a joint government-MILF monitoring group, said Eid Kabalu, spokesman for the MILF, who insisted that the attack was not sanctioned by the leadership.
The fighting erupted after some 100 MILF rebels attacked Army positions in Barangay Linantangan in Mamasapano and Barangay Labo-Labo in Sharif Aguak, both in Maguindanao province.
Brig. Gen. Alexander Yano, spokesman for the Armed Forces, blamed a breakaway faction of the MILF as behind the attack, which was meant to avenge the death of Fides Binago, a local bandit.
“One of the Abu Sofia bandits, Fedis Binago, was killed and he was a relative of Commander Tondok. They were avenging the killing,” Yano told reporters at a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo.
Yano said the attack was not sanctioned by the MILF leadership, and he expressed hope that the killing would have no negative effect on the efforts of restarting peace talks between the government and the separatist rebels.
“We will try to contain hostilities within the immediate vicinity to prevent their spilling over to other areas,” Yano said as he appealed to the MILF leadership to sanction its members who started the attack.
Col. Franklin del Prado, spokesman for the Philippine Army’s 6th Infantry Division in the area, said the slain soldiers all belonged to the battalion base attacked by the MILF.
Helicopter gunships and artillery fire were called in to blast the MILF positions as the fighting continued into Monday, del Prado added.
He said reports from the field indicated that at least 13 MILF rebels were killed in the counteroffensive.
Eight guerrillas were also wounded in the clash, said the local army commander, Lt. Col. Romulo Ocfemia.
Del Prado said the attack on Mamasapano, some 60 kilometers south of Cotabato City, was mounted by forces of MILF commander Abdul Rahman Binago, whose brother, Fides Binago, leader of the Abu Sofia bandit group, was killed last week.
The attack indicated an alliance between the Abu Sofia, which has been involved in kidnappings and robberies, and the MILF, which had signed a cease-fire with Manila in 2002, he said.
Eid Kabalu, spokesman for the MILF, confirmed that the forces of Binago had attacked the outpost in apparent retaliation for his brother’s death, but stressed that the attacks were not sanctioned by the MILF leadership.
Kabalu said the MILF leadership was trying to contact Binago to get him to pull out and that an international team of cease-fire monitors was being rushed to the area to keep the fighting from spreading.
Maj. Bartolome Bacarro, spokesman for the Philippine Army, said Monday that two separate clashes between their forces and the MILF took place in Maguindanao, a known MILF stronghold.
“We have recovered one body in the clash site in Linantangan, but we still can’t officially say if the attackers are indeed MILF rebels,” Bacarro told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo.
Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual, the Armed Forces Public Information chief, said the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, composed of representatives from the government and the MILF, met Monday morning to discuss the encounter.
Pascual said the rebels, numbering 100, had overrun the Army detachment in Linantangan.
The fierce gun battle between the two sides erupted despite the presence of an international team from Malaysia, which is monitoring the cease-fire agreement between the two sides.
“We cannot say who started the skirmishes, unless an investigation is conducted. We are now being subjected to 105-millimeter [howitzer] and mortar shelling and we expect air strikes any moment,” Kabalu said.
Radio reports have said that about 500 families from the two barangays have fled their homes to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
--With AFP
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/j...050111top1.html