Government negotiations failed to free as many as 180 civilians being held by Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) fighters in Zamboanga City on Saturday. Heavy clashes continued for the sixth day, with no clear signs the crisis would end soon. Hundreds of MNLF gunmen loyal to Nur Misuari have been occupying at least six barangays in Zamboanga since September 9 and are using the hostages as a shield against an assault by security forces. The rebels have threatened to kill the hostages if the military attacked. Over 50,000 residents have fled the fighting and were staying in temporary shelters. Human Rights Commissioner Manuel Mamauag said a rebel commander phoned him to say that two hostages were wounded in recent fighting. Mayor Maria Isabelle Salazar said on Saturday she wanted to finish the crisis before the day ends. “Our decision is to finish it today,” she told a local radio network. Salazar said she will not allow the rebels to escape. “We do not want them to get out scot-free; we do not want them to leave with a free pass,” she said. Vice President Jejomar Binay, who flew to Zamboanga on Saturday, said he had brokered a truce with Misuari late Friday, but Defense Chief Voltaire Gazmin insisted there was no ceasefire in place. “The AFP stops firing only when the MNLF stop firing, that’s the essence of the ceasefire,” Gazmin said in a television interview. Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said Binay had only informed Gazmin that he can reach out to Misuari. President Benigno Aquino 3rd arrived in Zamboanga Friday for a firsthand look at the crisis. Troops backed by armored vehicles have been trying to move on rebel positions in the villages of Santa Barbara and Santa Catalina, but were repulsed by automatic gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. The military said at least 43 rebels and six soldiers and policemen have been killed. Four civilians also died in the fighting and dozens more wounded. It said 19 rebels have surrendered or were captured. The violence has shut down almost all commercial establishments in the city. Misuari has repeatedly announced that the peace deal he signed with the government in 1996 is long dead. He has named himself as president of the Bangsamoro Republik. AFP Public Information chief, Lt. Colonel Ramon Zagala confirmed in a phone interview there was no ceasefire in Zamboanga. “What we are doing is a calibrated response to the MNLF rebels that fired at civilians yesterday,” Zagala said. Military sources said they were checking reports that Ustadz Habier Malik, the commander of the MNLF raiders, were among those killed in the fighting. The Zamboanga City government on Friday ordered the forced evacuation of at least five villages that were affected by the fighting. In Santa Barbara Saturday, rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at about 50 soldiers, wounding several troops, a news photographer saw. The soldiers were attacking a five-storey school building that contained rebel snipers, the photographer added. Valte accused the guerrillas of “firing indiscriminately at civilians including Red Cross volunteers who were wounded by mortar fire”, as well as attacking firemen who were responding to “the wanton burning of homes by the MNLF”. The military and police operations in the neighbourhoods aimed to “contain and constrict” the rebels, she added. The MNLF waged a 25-year guerrilla war for independence before signing a peace treaty in 1996 that granted limited self-rule to the south’s Muslim minority. Misuari, who has accused the government of violating the terms of a 1996 treaty by negotiating a separate deal with a rival faction, had disappeared from public view shortly before the fighting began Monday. The rival faction, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), is in the final stages of peace talks with Manila and is expected to take over an expanded autonomous Muslim region in the south by 2016. President Aquino said the peace talks with the MILF aimed to end decades of rebellion that had claimed 150,000 lives in the country’s Muslim southern regions. With Reports From Llanesca T. Panti and Agence France Presse
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 07:18:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015