Palace moves to stop Midsayap clashes

Malacañang moved yesterday to prevent clashes in North Cotabato from deteriorating into a full-blown conflict that will jeopardize five years of peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

A peace agreement is expected to be forged this year.

The Palace sent civilian officials, including representatives of the United Nations, to stand between government troops and separatist rebels after ground and air attacks by the military on MILF positions raged for two days.

Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process Jesus Dureza is flying to Midsayap town, the center of the latest clashes between soldiers and MILF guerrillas which forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes on Thursday, to personally oversee operations to normalize the situation there.

He described the clashes, among the worst since both sides formally agreed to cease hostilities three years ago, as "unfortunate," but said the situation was already being handled by the joint ceasefire committee of the government and the MILF. Sporadic clashes continued until early yesterday morning.

"The situation has started to normalize and we are now moving to assist the evacuees," Dureza said, referring to some 4,000 families who fled barangays Rangeban, Tugal and Mudsing after Air Force planes bombed the areas where suspected MILF guerrillas were believed to be hiding. "Local government officials are now providing initial assistance to them."

He said personnel from the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process, the Mindanao Economic Development Council and officials from the UN’s Act for Peace project were fielded to Midsayap.

Personnel from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) were also sent to the area to look after families displaced by the fighting.

The government and the MILF are in the final stages of negotiations for a peace agreement. Current talks are centered on the most contentious issues of ancestral domain or on which areas will be considered Bangsamoro homeland.

Foreign governments, including the United States, Australia, Japan and Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) member-nations promised to invest billions of dollars in development aid if a lasting peace agreement is signed.

Officials said they are hoping to forge a final peace agreement this year.

Meanwhile, Midsayap’s local officials have asked the MILF to voluntarily turn in to the police the three MILF commanders who led the plunder of three barangays in their municipality, saying this plunder was a serious violation of the ceasefire.

Tension has waned in the adjacent barangays of Rangaban, Mudsing and Sambulawan following a spate of attacks by MILF guerrillas over the last three days, but evacuees still refuse to return to their homes, fearing the return of MILF commanders Masgal, Orih and Garduque, who are also wanted for criminal offenses.

The police and military said the attacks on the three barangays began Thursday night and forced more than 500 families, or about 2,000 people, to evacuate to safer ground to avoid being trapped in the crossfire.

Midsayap Mayor Romeo Araña, who also chairs the municipal peace and order council, said the evacuees want the joint ceasefire committee to restrain the rebels and educate them on the mechanics of the ceasefire.

Quoting the evacuees, police investigators said the groups of Masgal, Orih and Garduque have been attacking these villages during the harvest season, taking the newly harvested rice, farm animals and personal belongings of the townsfolk, who are mostly marginalized Muslim families.

"When they come, they shoot our houses with their rifles to scare us away and when we are gone, they start looting our houses," said Bai Masla, a mother of three.

The rebels first showed up at Barangay Rangaban Thursday and raked houses there with automatic weapons fire. A militiaman named Alicio Canimo was killed when he and his companions engaged the rebels in a 30-minute running gunbattle.

Araña said the rebels, after being driven away from Rangaban Friday by responding policemen and soldiers, regrouped the next day in Mudsing and Sambulawan and attacked the houses of local militiamen.

Midsayap police chief Superintendent Chino Mamburam said that, since the commanders who led the attacks have standing warrants for their arrest for involvement in previous crimes, the MILF should voluntarily turn them over for prosecution.

Under the ceasefire, the government and MILF, through the joint ceasefire committee and the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG), are supposed to cooperate in the interdiction of wanted persons and terrorists as part of a security measure to ensure the cordiality of the ongoing peace talks.

Ando said the evacuees confirmed that three MILF fighters were killed when soldiers and militiamen counter-attacked to push them away from Barangays Mudsing and Sambulawan.

Two soldiers were wounded in the firefight, Ando added.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told Catholic station dxMS, the leading broadcast outfit here, that the CVOs and MILF members in the affected barangays have long been disputing ownership of parcels of arable land and other territory.

Kabalu said the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team, which is helping enforce the ceasefire, is now investigating the spate of encounters in Midsayap.

He also denied that the MILF started the fighting and accused government forces of touching off the conflict by encroaching on villages occupied by rebel units and their families.

"But we are working on preventing the clashes from escalating," Kabalu said.

"Our ceasefire mechanism is being put to the test," Dureza said.

Ando said the 6th Infantry Division will not hesitate to deploy more soldiers to the area if the rebels do not leave.

The MILF, meanwhile, is griping over the military’s shelling of MILF positions in Midsayap.

The MILF’s website, www.luwaran.com, said soldiers also pounded with artillery the guerrillas manning peacekeeping posts in Barangay Mudsing.

The peacekeeping post was established by the joint ceasefire committee to monitor and prevent confrontations by feuding Moro factions in the community.

The MILF website quoted Von AL-Haq, chairman of the MILF’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, as branding the alleged military offensives as "extreme breach" of the ceasefire.

At least 14 bombs were dropped by fixed-wing OV-10 bombers on MILF positions, forcing guerrillas manning the peacekeeping posts to return fire and engage advancing soldiers that approached them after the aerial bombardment, Al-Haq said.

Ando said six MILF fighters were killed in the hostilities, which waned only after the rebels occupying villages in Midsayap fled bringing with them their dead and wounded.

He said local leaders in Midsayap, including Muslim barangay officials, have asked the 6th ID to deploy permanent detachments in Barangays Rangaban, Mudsing and Sambulawan, which are all vulnerable to attacks by marauding MILF rebels.

MILF negotiator Mohager Iqbal said the latest round of fighting was triggered by a land feud between MILF members and Christian settlers in the three Midsayap barangays.

According to Iqbal, Army commanders sided with the Christian settlers, triggering the fighting. Ando denied Iqbal’s allegation, saying the troops intervened to settle the conflict but were attacked by the MILF guerrillas, prompting them to retaliate.

"I don’t think the clashes would derail the peace talks," Iqbal said. "But we have to patch up the conflict immediately because it could escalate and spread to other areas."

He added that the MILF "has protested the military’s actions." —With John Unson, AFP, AP