MILF accuses AFP of violating truce

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Moro rebels negotiating peace with the Philippine government accused the military of violating a fragile truce after attack planes bombed areas controlled by Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) forces in southern Philippines. "Military planes bombed our areas, although there were no reports of casualties, but the attacks violated the ceasefire agreement between the MILF and the Philippine government. We have filed a protest in connection with the airstrikes which occurred in Datu Piang (town in Maguindanao province) this week," a rebel spokesman, Von Al-Haq, said Thursday. The attack, he said, came as two MILF groups clashed over control of a rice field in the farming village of Alunganan. "The military took advantage of the fighting between two groups of MILF commanders – Adzmie and Abunawas – and bombed the village and it was only by luck that no civilian was killed in the airstrike," Al-Haq said. But the Army’s 6th Infantry Division denied the MILF accusations and said the planes fired only white phosphorous as a warning for the protagonists to stop fighting. "Our planes fired white phosphorous rounds in between the warring factions to mark their positions and show that we are serious in our efforts in stopping their conflicts. However, those rounds were smokes and not bombs. After we fired the white phosphorous rounds, the sporadic firefight stopped," said Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Hao, a spokesman for the 6ID. He said sporadic fighting between the two rebel groups forced more than 1,200 families to flee their homes for fear they would be trapped in the villages or held as human shields by MILF forces. "The operation conducted was a preventive move by the military to protect civilians and families displaced by the conflict between the warring MILF groups in the field," Hao said. He said at least four rebels were reported killed in the fighting between the two rebel commanders. Hao said the military also filed a protest against the MILF for violating the truce with the government ceasefire committees. The MILF said it has suspended the two commanders involved in the fighting and ordered rebel forces to stay inside their camps while it investigates the incident. Talks since 1997 The government has been holding talks with the MILF since 1997, during the time of then President Fidel Ramos. During the short-lived Estrada administration, talks were virtually non-existent as the government waged an all-out war campaign against the secessionist group, resulting in the seizure of major and satellite camps of the MILF across Central Mindanao. During the Arroyo administration talks resumed, but negotiations stalled in late 2008 when the Supreme Court barred the signing — and eventually ruled as unconstitutional — of a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain between the government and the MILF expanding the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The junking of the MOA-AD triggered violent acts from a faction of the MILF. Subsequent discussions between the government and the Moro secessionists, however, resulted in an agreement to continue talks under the next administration. — RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV