Fighting rage in Mindanao as peace talks with MILF rebels resume

Officials said hundreds of rebels have taken positions in the province of Maguindanao in central Mindanao region where at least 4 people had been killed since fighting began before midnight Sunday.

The rebels, who belong to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM), headed by Ameril Umra Kato, attacked military and civilian targets in retaliation to government offensives in Basilan province in the western part of Mindanao.

“There is still sporadic fighting in Maguindanao and we are trying to contain the rebels in those areas. Troops are also trying to retake the highway occupied by rebels in Maguindanao,” Col. Prudencio Asto, a spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division.

Asto did not say if there were reports of fresh casualties in the clashes, but Monday’s military report claimed that two rebels and two civilians were killed, and that an army commander was wounded in the battle.

Government troops fired several rounds of howitzer cannons on BIFM targets in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town. There were also reports that several houses owned by civilians were either torched or burned by artillery fires.

Rebels have broken into smaller groups and took positions in villages where they attacked security forces. More military tanks and armored vehicles were sent to the area to support foot soldiers fighting the rebels.

Kato’s group broke away with the main rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which is currently negotiating peace with Manila. Kato split with the MILF, headed by Murad Ebrahim, whom he accused of abandoning their demand for an independent state in Mindanao.

Kato – who has formed his own rebel group called Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and then later changed this to Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement  – vowed to fight for an independent Muslim homeland. The 60-year old rebel leader has several times criticized MILF chieftain Murad Ebrahim for talking peace with the Aquino government which insisted on granting wider autonomy to some four million Muslims in Mindanao.

He accused Ebrahim of abandoning their original demand for an independent state and opted instead to negotiate with Manila for a Muslim sub-state in the mineral-rich, but strife-torn southern region.

Kato is facing a string of criminal charges in connection to the series of attacks that he led after the failed signing of the Muslim homeland deal in 2008 between the MILF and the government. The Supreme Court declared the accord as unconstitutional and the aborted deal triggered a series of deadly attacks by Kato’s forces in Mindanao.

The MILF said it is now negotiating for a Muslim sub-state in the mineral-rich, but restive region, instead of an independent state in Mindanao.

Despite the violence in Maguindanao, peace negotiators resumed talks Tuesday in Malaysia in an effort to strike a political deal that would grant some four million Muslims their own sub-state in the southern Philippines.

Malaysia is brokering the peace talks between Manila and the MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group fighting for decades for self-determination. Peace negotiators have already agreed on the proposed new political entity that would replace the existing Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao which comprises Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao and Lanao, including the cities of Lamitan and Marawi.

Negotiators are expected to continue the discussion on power-sharing and wealth-sharing, and issue of transition mechanism and territories which would form part of the proposed expanded Muslim autonomous region. (With a report from Mark Navales)