AJLPP WARNS OF FULL BLOWN WAR IN MINDANAO, FIGHTING CONTINUES AS RAMADAN BEGINS

AJLPP Update

Mindanao Sit.

August 31, 2008

AJLPP WARNS OF FULL BLOWN WAR IN MINDANAO, FIGHTING CONTINUES AS RAMADAN BEGINS

Los Angeles—The Alliance Philippines (AJLPP)expresses serious concern on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) warned of a full-blown war with the peace process “in purgatory” after the government told the Supreme Court on Friday that a Moro homeland deal had been scrapped.

The AJLPP also are very wary about reports that more than 400,000 people in Mindanao have been affected or dislocated by the heavy fighting as Ramadan sets in.

MILF chief negotiator Mohaqher Iqbal told Reuters news agency that the MILF was no longer confident it could strike a final peace agreement under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration.

“We might as well wait for the next president after the 2010 elections,” Iqbal said. “She is just trying to save her own neck. That’s why she was not willing to defend the peace agreement and was also willing to sacrifice everything just to stay in power.”

The MILF Sunday said a government offensive against two of its commanders blamed for mounting brutal attacks in several provinces had struck MILF offices as well as those of a joint ceasefire team.

“Communal and ethnic war is not farfetched with the prevailing situation,” the MILF said on its website.

Skirmishes continued on the eve of the start of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan as troops pursued renegade groups led by Ameril Ombra Kato and Abdulla Macapaar, who accounted for 500 to 1,000 fighters of the 12,000-strong MILF.

The AFP have confirmed that Army’s 6th Infantry Division troops engaged Kato’s men in gun battles Sunday in Datu Piang and Datu Saudi towns in Maguindanao province. He said soldiers had captured an MILF encampment fortified with bunkers and trenches at Kitango village in Datu Saudi.

The AFP had reported that 125 MILF guerrillas had been killed in two weeks of fighting in the area. The MILF meanwhile reported that 150 AFP and vigilante troops were killed in three weeks fighting.

Government agencies said around 70 civilians had died in the upsurge of violence in central Mindanao in the past three weeks. The military had confirmed at least 17 soldiers killed while the MILF officially confirmed seven dead.

In Metro Manila, Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez Jr. called for a halt in the clashes. “Sept. 1 is a propitious day to declare a ceasefire, stop the cycle of violence and resume the stalled peace process in Mindanao,” Iñiguez said in a statement.

Iqbal said the MILF would only go back to the negotiating table if the government revived and signed the memorandum of agreement (MOA) expanding an autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao.

“The peace process is now in purgatory,” Iqbal told Reuters before he boarded a flight to Mindanao. “It was buried by government’s decision not to sign the ancestral do