Philippine troops attack jihadi occupying Christian towns

The jihad in the Philippines continues. Local muslims are unhappy because they violated an earlier agreement and will not get control over what they consider ancestral homeland. Un-happy the muslims did what un-happy muslims always do and found some Christians to attack. The military was a little slow to respond but I hope they shoot straight and regain control.

10 August, 2008 The International Herald Tribune
MANILA, Philippines: Philippine troops attacked Muslim guerrillas Sunday, setting off fierce exchanges of machine gun and artillery fire in a southern province after hundreds of rebels defied an ultimatum to withdraw from Christian villages, officials said.

At least six soldiers were wounded in clashes with Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters in the farming villages in Aleosan and Pikit, two of four rural townships of North Cotabato province where fighting erupted, said army Col. Diosdado Carreon of the 40th Infantry Battalion.

A Catholic church-run radio station, DXMS, reported that at least three soldiers and an undetermined number of rebels were killed, but the military said it has not confirmed those deaths.

The clashes have displaced up to 100,000 villagers in North Cotabato. The conflict came as the predominantly Christian agricultural province of more than a million people struggled to recover after Typhoon Fengshen, which ravaged farmlands in June, Gov. Jesus Sacdalan said.

“We haven’t fully recovered from a natural disaster and now we’re again being battered by a man-made calamity,” Sacdalan told The Associated Press by telephone.

The Muslim guerrillas looted newly harvested rice, stole cattle, destroyed farms and set fire to 82 houses in the villages they occupied in Aleosan and Midsayap in recent weeks, forcing many residents to flee, Sacdalan said.
-These would be Christian residents numbering in the thousands.

The government had given the estimated 800 to 1,000 Muslim guerrillas until 10 a.m. Friday to vacate several villages they had occupied in violation of a 2003 cease-fire. Instead of withdrawing, the rebels spread into other areas and are now in about two dozen North Cotabato villages, he said.

The rebels were ordered by their leaders to pull back from the occupied villages after discussions between MILF and Philippine officials on Saturday, but the rebels later complained that their withdrawal was hampered by government troops and armed villagers.

Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said some pro-military militias shot and wounded one rebel Saturday, prompting others to delay their withdrawal for fear they could also come under attack. A key rebel commander, Ameril Umbra Kato, told Kabalu in a meeting Sunday that his forces were willing to withdraw if there was a government assurance they would not be attacked, Kabalu said.

Military officials denied Kabalu’s claim, saying the rebels simply refused to leave the villages.
In a military statement Sunday, Brig. Gen. Jorge Segovia said rebels in the villages “degenerated into a plain bandit group.”

“All peaceful avenues have been exhausted to resolve the conflict,” Segovia said. “We are now compelled to resort to the application of proportionate and justifiable force so that peace and order may be restored in North Cotabato.”

Segovia stressed that the government assaults were not directed against the whole of the MILF, which has a truce with government troops.

Military vice chief of staff Lt. Gen. Cardozo Luna told reporters that army and police forces were bracing for a long battle with the defiant rebels.

DZBB radio reported fierce artillery exchanges in Baliki in Midsayap. Several residents fled to safety by foot and in vehicles, the radio station reported from the scene as gunshots and explosions rang in the background.

The new fighting came at a crucial point in peace negotiations between the government and the MILF rebels, who have been waging a decades-long insurgency for self-rule in the southern Philippines.

The two sides had reached an agreement covering the territory of a future Muslim homeland but the signing of the accord was stopped last week by the Supreme Court, acting on a petition filed by Christian politicians in North Cotabato.

There are concerns that the North Cotabato clashes could affect elections Monday for a new governor and other posts in a nearby five-province Muslim autonomous region that has a history of Muslim insurgent and factional violence.

More than 10,000 troops and police will be deployed to try to keep the balloting by about 1.5 registered voters free of trouble, police said.

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