By Xinhua,
Manila : At least eight people were killed, dozens injured, while 129,000 panic civilians fled homes in the southern Philippines as the government on Monday scaled up its combat operation against 500 radical Muslim rebels.
Armed Forces of the Philippines vice chief Lt. Gen. Cardozo Luna told reporters that the military has reliable information that about seven guerrillas of the Moro Islam Liberation Front (MILF) have been killed while on the government side one soldier died and 12 others were injured.
But concerns were raised as the National Disaster Coordinating Council on Monday disclosed that 129,819 local residents were displaced as the fighting intensified.
Social welfare officials and the country’s Red Cross said they are providing food and shelter to tens of thousands of people who fled the deadly clashes. Around 40 evacuation centers have been set up to accommodate the refugees. Footage of local television shows local residents appeal to both sides to cease fighting.
The Philippine military authority on Sunday ordered “clearance” operations to dislodge around 500 MILF rebels accused of illegally occupying 15 villages in North Cotabato province in Mindanao region. Luna said the army had managed to take back two villages by Monday noon and has intensified the offensives to reclaim the rest 13.
“We are conducting air strikes, close air support to our ground forces. Our forces are inching in towards the different villages with the objective of clearing them. Of course, we use big weapons like artillery,” Luna said.
On a press conference held in the national police headquarters in Metro Manila, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said the military will not cease “law enforcement operations” until all villages-occupying rebels are “flushed out”.
The Philippine government on last Thursday issued a 24-hour ultimatum for the rebels to vacate occupied villages and towns. Through negotiation, the MILF leadership later in the day agreed to pull out its guerrilla soldiers.
But local officials said a number of MILF soldiers on the ground largely ignored the command of its leadership.
Jorge Segovia, acting chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Command Center, on Sunday justified the government’s action by saying that in defiance of the negotiation’s agreement and the leadership’s command, certain radical rebels have degenerated themselves into a plain “bandit group”.
Meanwhile, MILF civil military affairs chief Eid Kabalu said the MILF is monitoring the situation and might send reinforcement while on the other hand it let the door for negotiation open.
Kabalu told local media that MILF soldiers were retaliating against the government troops and there were many unannounced casualties.
Also on Monday, police authority in Basilan province of Mindanao region reported a foiled attempt by 300 MILF guerrillas to seize the town of Tipo-Tipo. Local on-line news network GMA News said the government troops succeeded in driving out of the rebels by Monday night but an unconfirmed number of 15 rebels were killed in the clashes.
The powerful Church authority of the Catholics-dominated state on Monday appealed to the government and rebels to end the hostilities for the sake of the thousands of civilians — both Muslims and Christians.
“The poor people are dislocated from their homes. I hope that peace will reign on both sides,” said president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo over a Catholic Church-run radio.
The 12,000-member MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, has been fighting for a Muslim state for nearly 4 million Muslims residing in Mindanao region since its founding in 1970s.
The group once signed a truce with the government but it was loosely implemented. The peace talks between the two sides have been on and off.
Sporadic skirmishes erupted between the rebels and government forces in the south since last Monday when the country’s Supreme Court halted the signing of a Muslim homeland agreement.
The agreement is seen instrumental to a final peace accord but it had met protests from the Christian groups in the South and the strong criticism from the opposition of the administration.