Muslim Hate in the Philippines
Twin bombs in Philippines kill at least 14, blamed
on Islamic State-linked rebels
A bomb
attached to a motorcycle exploded an hour before a female suicide bomber blew
herself up, in the country’s deadliest attacks this year
There was no
immediate claim of responsibility, but the military blamed an Abu Sayyaf
militant commander, Mundi Sawadjaan
Associated
Press
August 24,
2020
Muslim
militants allied with Islamic State set off
a powerful motorcycle explosive followed by a suicide bombing that together
killed 14 people on Monday, many of them soldiers, in the worst extremist
attack in the
Philippines this year, military officials
said.
At least 75
soldiers, police and civilians were wounded in the midday bombings in Jolo town in southern Sulu province, regional military
commander Lieutenant General Corleto Vinluan said. The bombings were staged as the government
grapples with the highest number of coronavirus infections in
Southeast Asia.
Vinluan said most of the victims, including
children, were killed and wounded in the first attack, when a bomb attached to
a motorcycle exploded near two parked army trucks in front of a grocery store
and computer shop in Jolo.
“It was a
vehicle-borne improvised explosive device which exploded while our soldiers
were on a marketing run,” Vinluan told reporters.
A second
blast, apparently from a female suicide attacker, occurred about an hour later
and killed the bomber, a soldier, a police commando and wounded several others,
a military report said. The suspected bomber walked out of a snack shop,
approached soldiers who were securing a Roman Catholic cathedral and “suddenly
blew herself up”.
Snipers were
deployed in the area to guard against more bombers as the victims were carried
to an ambulance.
A third
unexploded bomb was reportedly found in a public market. Jolo
was immediately placed in a security lockdown by troops and police.
The bombings
were the deadliest attack in the country this year and were staged as the
Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque condemned the bombings “in the strongest
possible terms”.
Initial
pictures showed soldiers carrying a man from the scene of the explosion near an
army truck while another victim lay on the road. The wreckage of a motorcycle
and body parts were seen on the road.
The first
bombing was carried out near a town plaza and the cathedral in the
predominantly Muslim province. The country’s southern region is home to
minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation and has been the scene of
decades of Muslim separatist unrest, particularly in remote island provinces
such as Jolo.
There was no
immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but the military blamed an
Abu Sayyaf militant commander, Mundi Sawadjaan.
Military
officials said last week that Sawadjaan had plotted
bombings in Sulu using two female suicide attackers. Army troops were carrying
out a covert operation to locate and capture Sawadjaan
and the suicide bombers in June when four army personnel were stopped at a Jolo police checkpoint and later shot to death by a group
of policemen.
The army
angrily described the killings as a rub out and demanded murder charges be
filed immediately against nine policemen. Police officials, however, say it may
have been a mistaken encounter between the army and police forces.
The military
has been waging a months-long offensive against the Abu Sayyaf, a small but
violent group aligned with Islamic State group and listed by the
United States and the Philippines as a terrorist group for past bombings,
ransom kidnappings and beheadings.
Its armed
fighters have dwindled in number to a few hundred in recent years due to battle
setbacks and surrenders, including a key commander, Abduljihad
Susukan, who gave up to authorities two weeks ago
after being wounded in battle.
Susukan has been blamed for kidnappings and
beheadings of hostages, including foreign tourists. He reportedly surrendered
through a Muslim rebel chief who has signed a peace deal and was cooperating
with the government.
Military
officials said they were not discounting the possibility that Monday’s bombings
were staged partly in retaliation for the detention of Susukan,
who is now in police custody and faces multiple murder and kidnapping charges.
2
dead, nearly 30 wounded in bomb blast at Philippine mall
January 4, 2019
COTABATO,
Philippines (AP) — Suspected Muslim militants remotely detonated a bomb near
the entrance of a mall in the southern Philippines on Monday as people did
last-minute shopping ahead of New Year's Eve celebrations, killing at least two
and wounding nearly 30, officials said.
The
bomb went off near a baggage counter at the entrance of the South Seas mall in
Cotabato city, wounding shoppers, vendors and commuters. Authorities recovered
another unexploded bomb nearby as government forces imposed a security lockdown
in the city, military and police officials said.
Maj.
Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said
by phone that an initial investigation showed the design of the bomb was
similar to those used in the past by local Muslim militants who have pledged
allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Government
forces launched an offensive against the militants belonging to a group called Daulah Islamiyah last week and at least seven of the
militants died in the fighting, Sobejana said.
"This is a part of the retaliation, but the problem is they're victimizing
innocent civilians," he told reporters.
Supt.
Romeo Galgo Jr., the deputy police director of
Cotabato, said witnesses saw a man leave a box in a crowded area near the
mall's entrance where vendors and shoppers were milling. The explosion
shattered glass panels and scattered debris to the street fronting the mall.
Two
of the roughly 30 people hit by the blast died while being brought to a
hospital, Sobejana said.
Cotabato
Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi condemned the bombing and
called on residents to help fight terrorism.
"This
is not just another terroristic act but an act against humanity. I cannot
fathom how such evil exists in this time of merry making," she said.
"It
is unimaginable how some people can start the new year with an act of cruelty
but no matter how you threaten us, the people of Cotabato are resilient. ... We
will stand up against terrorism," she told reporters.
The
bombing, the latest in a number of attacks blamed on militants in the volatile
region, occurred despite on-and-off military assaults against pockets of
militant groups operating in the marshlands and hinterlands not far from
Cotabato and outlying provinces.
Hundreds
of militants aligned with the Islamic State group laid siege in the southern
Islamic city of Marawi in May last year, sparking five months of intense
fighting and military airstrikes that left more than 1,100 mostly militants
dead and displaced hundreds of thousands of villagers.
President
Rodrigo Duterte placed the southern third of the country under martial law to
deal with the Marawi siege, the worst security crisis he has faced since taking
office in mid-2016.
The
militants are opposed to a Muslim autonomy deal signed by the biggest Muslim
rebel group and the government. There are concerns that radical groups may
carry out bombings and other attacks to derail a Jan. 21 regional plebiscite
aimed at obtaining public approval of a new law establishing a more powerful
Muslim autonomous region in the south.
Koran,
boots and scarves all that remain in Philippine rebel leader's lair
By Martin Petty
Reuters
MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - Prayer mats, chequered
scarves, black fatigues, and bullet-ridden walls mark the hideout where the
"emir" of Islamic State in Southeast Asia spent months preparing the
most brazen and devastating militant attack in the region.
A four-storey house in a quiet alley of Marawi City
in the southern Philippines was the secret lair of Isnilon
Hapilon until late May. After a botched military raid
to apprehend him, a thousand-strong rebel alliance held large parts of the city
for five months.
Hapilon's death in a military operation elsewhere in
Marawi on Oct. 16 was the catalyst for the end of Philippines' longest and most
intense urban battle in recent history.
Security forces moved in on the house on May 23, trying to capture the
country's most wanted man, but came under sustained attack from rebels firing
rocket-propelled grenades.
A bomb-battered structure, shattered windows and wall-to-wall holes from
machine gun fire tell the story of the ferocious three-day battle that erupted
at Hapilon's hideout, and prompted the call to
hundreds of fighters to expedite the planned takeover of Marawi.
Hapilon escaped through a large hole that was blasted
out of a rear wall, making his way across a rice field to a mosque next to the
vast Lake Lanao. From there, he joined the guerrillas.
Community volunteers on Thursday showed Reuters the house in the now empty,
narrow street where the military believes Hapilon had
lain low for several months. All other properties were intact and neighbours had fled long ago.
"At the time, no one knew who these people were. People saw them about but
there was no reason to suspect anything," said Mohammed Seddick Raki, who lived nearby.
Other volunteers said women and children stayed at the rented house and
visitors were frequent.
Children's shoes were scattered amid the debris and a woman's robe was hanging
from a window.
BATTLE READY
Inside the house, black shirts, pants and plaid scarves synonymous with Islamic
State were strewn across rooms littered with broken floor tiles and chunks of
rock from blasted walls.
Left behind were waterproof boots, a balaclava, medical supplies and camouflage
bags and waistcoats typically used by soldiers to carry rifle magazines.
Coated in a think layer of dust on floors of every
room were pocket-sized copies of the Koran, some with pages stained by water
leaked through gaping holes in the roof.
A mosque, about 100 metres behind the house, was the
venue for an annual gathering in Marawi of Tablighi Jamaat, a Sunni missionary
movement, just days before the fighting erupted.
Military officials say the foreigners who fought in Hapilon's
alliance - among them Indonesians, Malaysians and some from Arab states - had
used that event as a cover to slip into Marawi without raising suspicion.
The deputy task force commander in Marawi, Colonel Romeo Brawner, said Hapilon evaded security forces because rebels had a network
of lookouts and gunmen ready to defend him.
"They put up heavy resistance. They were spread across a large area. They
were strategically placed," he said. "They were prepared for
it."
Hapilon's escape in the last week of May led to
anarchy in the city of about 200,000. Rebels took hostages, set fire to
buildings, ransacked churches, broke into the local jail to free inmates and
looted an armoury.
The government had insufficient security forces in Marawi to prevent the
fighters from fanning out across the city and seizing hundreds of buildings.
Hapilon was wanted by the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) and had a bounty on his head of up to $5 million (£3.8
million). He was killed by army rangers in a night operation and his body was
retrieved from the battle zone in the heart of the city. His identity was
confirmed by the FBI's DNA analysis.
The city of Marawi was all but destroyed by government air strikes and shelling
that levelled commercial areas and crushed thousands of shops, homes and
vehicles.
"No one could have known what would happen," said Mohamed Faisal
Mama, a resident in the same Basak Malutlot district where Hapilon
was hiding.
"No one knew them. They weren't famous then."
Thousands flee Philippine city after rebel rampage claimed by Islamic State
May 24, 2017
Reuters
By Romeo Ranoco | PANTAR, PHILIPPINES
Thousands of civilians fled fighting in the Philippines on Wednesday as troops
tried to fend off Islamist militants who took over large parts of a city,
capturing Christians, seizing and torching buildings and setting free scores of
prisoners.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the rampage via its Amaq news agency, and President Rodrigo Duterte defended
his decision to declare martial law on Mindanao, the Muslim-majority island
where Marawi City is located, to prevent the spread of extremism in the
impoverished region.
The violence flared in Marawi on Tuesday afternoon after a botched raid by
security forces on a hideout of the Maute, a militant
group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
Fighters quickly dispersed, torching buildings and taking over bridges, a
hospital, two jails, a church and a college. Duterte said he heard reports they
may have beheaded a police chief.
He said Islamic State must be repelled from the Christian-majority Philippines
and he would use all means possible to crush the Maute
group and the allied Abu Sayyaf, whatever the consequences.
"Anyone now holding a gun, confronting government with violence, my orders
are spare no one, let us solve the problems of Mindanao once and for all,"
said Duterte, who is from the island, after cutting short a visit to Russia and
returning to Manila.
"If I think you should die, you will die. If you fight us, you will die.
If there's an open defiance, you will die, and if it means many people dying,
so be it. That's how it is."
Soldiers and guerrillas set up rival checkpoints and roadblocks on routes in
and around Marawi as civilians fled the city of 200,000 in droves, leaving
behind what one official described as a ghost town.
Long queues of pickup trucks and jeeps crammed full of people and loaded with
belongings crawled along roads into nearby towns as troops searched vehicles
for weapons and bombs.
The military said it had rescued 120 people from a school and a hospital and
was trying to isolate Maute fighters while awaiting
reinforcements that were being blocked by rebels.
Maute snipers and booby traps were hampering
operations, which the army said could last three more days.
HUMAN SHIELDS
The Catholic church said militants were using Christians and a priest as human
shields and had contacted cardinals with threats to execute hostages unless
government troops withdrew.
Thirteen militants and seven security personnel have so far been killed and 33
troops wounded, the army said.
Mujiv Hataman, governor of
the Autonomous Region in Mindanao, said militants freed 107 prisoners, among
them Maute rebels.
Duterte said martial law would mean checkpoints and arrests and searches
without warrant, and it would go on for as long as necessary.
He said he would consider some security measures in the central Visayas region
next to Mindanao to facilitate arrests, and could even declare martial law
nationwide. He was furious that militants had hoisted the Islamic State flag in
Marawi.
"I made a projection, not a prediction, that one of these days the hardest
things to deal with would be the arrival of ISIS," Duterte said, referring
to Islamic State.
"The government must put an end to this. I cannot gamble with ISIS because
they are everywhere."
Duterte said he would not tolerate abuses of power by security forces under
martial law, but critics said the military rule in all of Mindanao, an island
the size of South Korea with a population of 22 million, was an overreaction.
The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers, a group of human rights attorneys,
called it "a sledgehammer, knee-jerk reaction" that would "open
the flood gates for unbridled human rights violations".
The military has not explained how the raid on an apartment hideout went so
badly wrong. The operation was aimed at capturing Isnilon
Hapilon, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf group notorious
for piracy, banditry and for kidnapping and decapitating Westerners.
The Maute and Abu Sayyaf have proved fierce opponents
for the military.
The armed forces said they were on top of the situation but residents who fled
told a different story.
"The city is still under the control of the armed group. They are all over
the main roads and two bridges leading to Marawi," student Rabani Mautum told Reuters in Pantar town, about 16 km (10 miles) away.
Bishops and cardinals urged Islamic leaders to persuade militants to free
innocent hostages.
"We beg every Filipino to pray fervently," said Father Socrates
Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
Duterte declares martial law in Philippine island of Mindanao in response to
militant attacks
May 23, 2017
Los
Angeles Times
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law on the southern
island of Mindanao on Tuesday night after a city there was rocked by clashes
between government forces and Islamist militants.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella announced the
declaration in Moscow, where Duterte arrived Tuesday for a five-day state
visit. Martial law on the island — which is home to more than 20 million people
— began at 10 p.m. and will last for 60 days, Abella
said.
This marks the first time Duterte has declared martial law since he was elected
in June 2016. He will cut his Russia trip short, postponing scheduled meetings
with President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, according to
the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Duterte declared a nationwide “state of lawlessness” in September 2016 after a
suspected terror attack in Davao, the island’s biggest city, killed 14 people.
The declaration granted the military special powers to aid in police
operations, such as setting up checkpoints and patrols.
Martial law is much more consequential; it raises the specter of warrantless
arrests and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, which grants detainees
the right to challenge the legality of their detention.
Many Filipinos are particularly sensitive about martial law, as the late
Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos used it to detain and torture opponents
from 1973 until 1981.
On Tuesday afternoon, at least 15 members of the Maute
group — Islamist militants believed to be inspired by Islamic State — stormed
the city of Marawi, the capital city of the province of Lanao del Sur.
Residents posted photos of the ensuing clashes online. Many showed the
Philippine military installing checkpoints; army tanks rolling through city
streets; and massive fires raging at three local institutions, including the
city jail. The number of casualties remains unclear.
Maute militants were seen riding through Marawi atop
at least two vehicles and flying the black banner of Islamic State, the
Philippine online magazine Rappler reported.
Duterte has made a brutal anti-drug campaign a centerpiece of his early tenure,
enabling thousands of extrajudicial killings by police and vigilantes. Critics
have accused him of exercising power without restraint.
In August, Duterte threatened to declare martial law if the Philippines’
judiciary blocked his drug campaign. "Please do not create a
confrontation, a constitutional war. We will all lose,” he said.
Philippines blast: 3 sought in deadly bombing,
Islamists suspected
By Tim Hume and Maria Ressa, CNN
September
4, 2016
(CNN)Police in the Philippines are looking for a man and two women they want to
question in connection with the blast at a crowded market in Davao City that
killed 14 people.
National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa told CNN on
Saturday the blast late Friday was caused by an improvised explosive device
made of mortar rounds -- which pointed to extremist groups.
Escalating ISIS threat in Southeast Asia: Is the Philippines a weak link?
Dela Rosa told reporters in the southern Philippines city that authorities had
eight witnesses, and a sketch of one suspect.
Sixty-eight people were injured at the crowded night market in President
Rodrigo Duterte's hometown, Dela Rosa said. Fifteen of the injured were in
critical condition, CNN Philippines reported, citing Southern Philippines
Medical Center director Leopoldo Vega.
Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte -- the President's son -- said the city had
received a bomb threat two days before the blast, CNN affiliate ABS-CBN
reported.
Members of the UN Security Council called the attack "heinous" and
"cowardly," and said "those responsible for these killings
should be held accountable," according to a press statement issued on
Sunday.
Islamists are suspected
On Saturday morning, during a visit to the blast site, Duterte told reporters
that Islamist militants could be responsible.
"We are not new to this kind. It is always connected with the Abu Sayyaf
or in Central Mindanao," he said, according to a statement from his
office.
"But this is not the first time that Davao City has been sacrificed in the
altar of violence."
He said he had warned the public that there could be blowback from intensified
government military operations against the pro-ISIS Islamist group Abu Sayyaf
in Sulu province, where 8,000 troops deployed in recent weeks.
"We have always been ready for this. I warned, I remember warning
everybody that there could be a reprisal because of the pressure there in Sulu
which is going on," Duterte said.
Abu Sayyaf is a violent extremist group that split from the established
Philippines separatist movement Moro National Liberation Front in 1991. The
group, which remains outside the country's sputtering peace process, has the
stated aim of establishing an independent Islamic state on the southern island
of Mindanao, on which Davao City is located.
The group first became active in the early 1990s and was responsible for
bombings across the southern Philippines and in the Malaysian state of Sabah,
and more recently has gained headlines for kidnapping and beheading Western
hostages.
The Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country, with a large Muslim
population in the south.
Abu Sayyaf: Islamist extremists or profiteering criminals?
'State of lawlessness'
Duterte has described the attack as an act of terrorism, and declared the
nation in "a state of lawlessness," authorizing police and the
military to search cars and frisk people at checkpoints.
The "state of lawlessness" is the mildest of the three executive
powers the President can order, giving him the power to summon the military and
work more closely with police, but falls short of being a declaration of
martial law. The president can only impose martial law in case of invasion or
rebellion, Duterte's spokesman said.
"It's not martial law but I am inviting now the Armed Forces of the
Philippines, the military and the police to run the country in accordance with
my specifications," he said, according to CNN Philippines.
Duterte, who visited a morgue early Saturday to pay respects to the dead, said
people should submit to searches and frisking at checkpoints for the sake of
public safety.
"We know that this is not a fascist state. I cannot control the movement
of the citizens of the city and every Filipino has the right to enter and leave
Davao. It is unfortunate we cannot stop and frisk anybody for just any
reason," he said.
Police and military are on high alert across the country, and authorities have
urged the public to be vigilant in case of further attacks.
Duterte's war on drugs
Duterte, the longtime mayor of Davao City, has faced domestic and international
criticism since taking national office for his hardline stance on suspected
drug offenders.
Rodrigo Duterte promised to fight drug dealers
The Philippine Daily Inquirer's "Kill List" -- regarded as one of the
most accurate records of the killings of suspected drug dealers by police and
vigilantes -- has recorded 832 deaths since Duterte assumed office June 30.
Police say at least 239 drug suspects were killed in the three weeks after
Duterte's inauguration.
Duterte's war on drugs leaves bodies in the street
'I am really scared'
Leonor Rala, a 19-year-old medical technology student
at San Pedro College, told CNN Friday night that she was terrified after the
blast struck near her dorm.
She said she initially thought something had fallen on the roof of a
neighboring building. She went down to survey the scene of the blast, about 100
yards from her dorm. Emergency teams were already in place.
"I am really scared to go out," she said. "Some of my
schoolmates are victims of the explosion and now dead."
She continued: "We're very terrified because Davao City was known to be
the safest city in the Philippines and a situation like this is very
rare."
Troops are killed, some beheaded, in southern
Philippines
By
Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
MANILA: At least 14 government troops were killed in some of the heaviest
fighting with Muslim insurgents in the southern Philippines in recent months, officials
said Wednesday.
Military officials said they had recovered the bodies of 14 marines after
clashes with suspected Abu Sayyaf militants late Tuesday in Tipo-tipo, a hinterland town on Basilan island, and that at
least 10 of them had been beheaded.
A marine spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Caculitan,
said in Manila that 50 marines had clashed with more than 300 rebels. "We
were totally outnumbered," he said.
Major General Ben Mohammad Dolorfino suggested that
the marines had been beheaded by Abu Sayyaf in retaliation for the slaying of
the son of one of the group's leaders. "They got angry, that's why they
decapitated the marines," Dolorfino said.
However, leaders of another group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said it
was its own fighters who had fought with the marines and killed 23 of them. But
the front's spokesman, Abu Majid, denied the front's fighters had beheaded the
marines. He said this was done by "unidentified groups" after the
fighting, and that the front planned to investigate. He said four rebels had
been killed and seven wounded.
Majid also said the violence could have been avoided had the government troops,
who had entered the area in search of a kidnapped Roman Catholic priest from
Italy, consulted with the front first. "We have all the mechanism in the
cease-fire that allows coordination and to prevent this kind of unfortunate
incident," he said.
The military said the marines had been patrolling Tipo-tipo
to check out reports that the Reverend Giancarlo Bossi,
who was kidnapped last month in Zamboanga Sibugay Province, also in the
southern Philippines, had been taken to Basilan.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has been fighting for a separate Islamic
state for Filipino Muslims in the south for three decades; a cease-fire is in
effect, although there have been violations. The agreement requires both sides
to coordinate their movements if one side ventures into an area where the other
side is present. Majid said he did not understand why the marines did not
notify the front of its operations in Tipo-tipo.
Mohaqher Iqbal, the head of the front's negotiating
panel, said: "Our troops thought they were under attack. That's why they
fought back. It should have not happened."
The Philippine government had said that some elements of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front were also working with Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, two
groups that have been blamed for some of the most horrific terrorist attacks in
the country since 2001.
The front has denied any connection with Abu Sayyaf or Jemaah Islamiyah, but
promised to purge its ranks of extremists.
Muslim Filipinos Vote as Violence Rages in Southern Philippines
By
Nancy-Amelia Collins
Jakarta – Voice of America
11 August 2008
Over a million and a half Muslim Filipinos have voted in a regional election
held amid escalating violence between the government and Muslim separatists in
the southern Philippines. VOA correspondent Nancy-Amelia Collins in Jakarta
reports.
Around 1.6 million Muslim Filipinos voted Monday for a governor, vice governor,
and 24 members of a regional legislative assembly in the six-province
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, known as the ARMM.
Local and international observers called the polls generally peaceful but
marred by perennial problems such as tainted voter's lists.
Fighting between Muslim rebels and government troops in North Cotabato, which
is not part of the ARMM, did not directly affect the elections.
Tensions remained high in the region as troops battled with hundreds of
separatist Muslim fighters in North Cotabato forcing an estimated 130,000
people to flee their homes.
The fighting began Sunday after rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front,
or MILF, defied a government ultimatum to withdraw from several Christian
villages in North Cotabato on the southern island of Mindanao.
Mohaqher Iqbal, the chief peace negotiator for the
MILF, told VOA the violence was escalating.
"Fighting is still on going and it is worsening day by day because more
troops coming from the government are enforcing their positions in various
towns in the province," said Iqbal. "Our forces are defending
themselves from this operation by the Philippine Forces."
The flare up of violence in the southern Philippines follows a decision last
week by the country's Supreme Court to suspend a deal for an expanded Muslim
homeland the group had agreed on with the government.
MILF chief negotiator Iqbal warned the peace process was in danger of
collapsing.
"We are negotiating with the Philippine government as the sole representative
of the government of the Republic of the Philippines. And then as to the
internal squabbles to the three branches of government, the position of the
MILF is that that is internal to the Philippine government, and if the Supreme
Court rules negative, then as far as we are concerned, the peace process is
practically dead," added Iqbal.
The ARMM, the country's poorest region, was created in 1989, as part of a deal
to end the conflict with another large Muslim separatist group, the Moro
National Liberation Front.
The MILF has been negotiating with Manila since 1997 to enlarge the Muslim
homeland and grant it wider political, economic, and social powers.
But the Supreme court's decision last week to put on hold the expanded
territorial deal, which, among other things, would allow the proposed Muslim
homeland to retain 75 percent of all revenues from its natural resources, has
created uncertainty.
The 12,000 strong MILF has been fighting with the government since the late
1960's in a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 120,000 people.
The Philippines is predominately Roman Catholic, but around 5 percent of the
population is Muslim and the majority of them live in the south.
Islamic separatists kill 28 in Philippines rampage
August 18, 2008
International Herald Tribune
Islamic separatists attacked several towns and
villages Monday in the troubled southern Philippine region of Mindanao, killing
at least 28 people in a rampage that, officials said, included hacking several
people with machetes and spraying bullets into buses.
The attacks came as tens of thousands of
villagers in other areas of Mindanao were returning to their homes following
the fighting last week between government troops and the Muslim rebels.
News reports from Mindanao said several of the
victims had been hacked with machetes. The rebels, according to officials, also
burned down houses. The police said that the fatalities were mostly civilians,
mainly farmers, while an undetermined number were soldiers.
Officials said more than 200 rebels attacked at
least four towns in two provinces in Mindanao.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo called the
attacks "sneaky and treacherous" and ordered the military and the
police "to defend every inch of Philippine territory" against the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the main Islamic separatist group operating
in Mindanao.
"I will crush any attempt to disturb peace
and development in Mindanao," the president said in a radio address.
The civilians were killed when the rebels withdrew,
said Brigadier General Hilario Atendido, a military
commander in the area. "They used them as human shields," Atendido said, speaking on the radio station DZBB.
"The rebels killed them on their way out."
According to news reports, the rebels also took
several residents as hostages. A bus driver told a radio station in Mindanao
that the rebels, shouting "Kill them all!" fired on his bus. The
driver did not say how many of his passengers were wounded or killed.
Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo,
the governor of Lanao del Sur Province, said that the rebels were moving toward
Christian-dominated towns in the coastal areas and that the military was
directing its forces to protect those places.
"The military is doubling its
forces," he told ABS-CBN television. "The highest priority now is to
secure the coastal towns."
Eid Kabalu, a
spokesman for the rebel front, said it was still checking reports that the
attackers were rebels. He urged the public "not to jump to
conclusions" as the front investigated the attacks.
But in case the rebels were front members, Kabalu urged them to stop the violence and to pull out of
the province. He said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front did not issue any
directive to carry out the attacks.
The violence this week, which began on Sunday
in Lanao del Sur, where four soldiers and four military-supported militia
members were killed, is certain to complicate the peace negotiations between
the government and the front.
Two weeks ago, both sides had reached an
agreement that they thought could end the fighting. But it was scuttled because
of protests over the concessions that were to be given to the Muslim rebels.
Government negotiators then said they were willing to abandon the peace
agreement because of the backlash it caused in the Philippines. Analysts had
said the breakdown of the talks could lead to more violence.
The new attacks, said the army chief, General
Alexander Yano, were a "clear manifestation of the insincerity to the
peace process of a significant portion" of the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front. This, he added, "is a virtual declaration of war against the duly
constituted authority."