Wednesday August 13, 2008

Philippines retakes farmlands from Muslim rebels

By Manny Mogato

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine troops have retaken control of all 15 Catholic farmlands from Muslim rebels after three days of air and ground attacks, army officials said on Wednesday, but none of 160,000 displaced farmers are returning home.

Government soldiers position a 105 howitzer near areas vacated by Moslem Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Bagolibas village in Aleosan, North Cotabato in southern Philippines August 12, 2008. (REUTERS/Stringer)

Major-General Armando Cunanan, a military commander in Mindanao, said troops had driven out rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) from villages they had occupied in North Cotabato province.

"Our troops have virtually liberated these areas," Cunanan told reporters, adding the rebels had been forced to move back to the marshlands or deeper into the mountains in adjacent Shariff Kabunsuan province in the southern Philippines.

"We're sending our bomb disposal teams to make sure all the villages are safe from booby traps and landmines that were left behind by the retreating rebels."

The rebels launched their attack last week after the Philippines Supreme Court halted a deal to create a new, larger homeland for Muslims that would give them more autonomy in the impoverished but resource-rich south.

Muslims in the south of the largely Catholic country have been seeking some form of independence for decades in a conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people, but as details of a secretive land deal began emerging last month, Christians took the matter to court.

Cunanan said some of the recently displaced farmers had been allowed to check their homes and farms, but most of the more than 160,000 displaced farmers were afraid to return.

Only around 10 percent of the displaced are estimated to be in evacuation centres with the rest either camped outside or staying with relatives.

On Wednesday, the United Nations said it was concerned about a humanitarian crisis.

"The Secretary-General appeals for restraint, protection of all civilians as well as access for the provision of speedy humanitarian assistance to the affected population," the statement read.

Most aid agencies have been unable to access the region because of the fighting.

"The Red Cross has finally been able to get in. We're preparing to feed 85,000 people for the next five days," Richard Gordon, the head of the Philippines' Red Cross, told Reuters.

Mohaqher Iqbal, the MILF chief peace negotiator, said the rebels did not start the hostilities and warned the national police against filing criminal charges against one of their field commanders, Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato.

"They can bring their complaint to the ceasefire committee because taking him to court might have an adverse impact on the peace process," Iqbal said, adding Kato was not a renegade MILF leader as the army and police were trying to portray him.

Despite this week's violent clash, neither side is talking about a return to all-out war.

Analysts have said both sides were flexing their military muscles after yet another setback in long-running talks to end a near 40-year separatist conflict in Mindanao that has killed more than 120,000 people.

(Additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco)

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