14 dead, dozens hurt in three-day Lanao clan war

Fourteen people, one of them a brother of a mayor, have been killed since Friday when fisticuffs between two men turned into a sporadic gunbattle between their respective ethnic groups in a remote Lanao del Sur town.

The bloodbath has forced over a hundred families to evacuate their homes.

Officials said it all began Friday in a secluded fishing village in Balabagan town when fisherman Alayon Ansal, a Tausug, got into a quarrel that turned into a fight with a man identified only as Salik, a Maranaw. It was not immediately clear what the fight was about.

Police said lawyer Cabilo Ogca, brother of Balabagan Mayor Edna Sampiano and an acknowledged town leader, broke up the fisticuff and scheduled a reconciliation meeting.

Accompanied by friends and relatives, Ansal and Salik went to the meeting that quickly disintegrated into a heated dispute.

Roger Wahid, who attended the meeting, said Ansal’s side later walked out of the meeting and returned with guns.

Ogca, who happened to be a Maranaw, tried to pacify Ansal and was shot dead along with three of his bodyguards.

Sampiano’s security escorts, members of a local Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit militia, returned fire, killing Ansal and his brother Nasser.

Six people were killed in the ensuing shootout that quickly escalated into a gunbattle that spread to nearby villages and divided residents along ethnic lines.

At least eight more people, including an eight-year-old girl who got trapped in a crossfire, were killed.

Wahid said his family fled to Parang town in nearby Maguindanao. "I managed to crawl away from the scene of the firefight and succeeded in evacuating right away my family from Balabagan because we can be subjected to retaliation because we are Tausugs," he told The STAR.

Police said of the 14 people killed, four were Maranaws and the rest were Tausugs.

Meanwhile, the gunbattle had become a stalemate although heavily armed supporters of the Sampiano clan have sealed off a predominantly Tausug barangay in the town. Snipers from both sides traded shots, police said.

Maranaw and Iranon religious leaders would try to resolve the conflict peacefully, Parang town councilor Gaudencio Teves said.

Police said a peacekeeping force has been deployed to the area.

Mindanao is home to several ethnic groups and families are often close-knit. However, the kinship sometimes results in violent rivalries or disputes because of the proliferation of guns in the region.

The region is also home to a decades-long Muslim insurgency waged by the estimated 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is currently holding peace negotiations with the government.

The government is also battling the much smaller but more radical Abu Sayyaf bandit group, alleged to have ties with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network. – With AFP