WHOSE COUNTRY IS IT ANYWAY? (tags)
After 11 years of peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the two sides were close to a deal known as the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain. This was essentially an agreement that would have granted points of autonomy to the Moro people in Mindanao and the Southern Philippines. Just before the signing, the government stopped the negotiations on Sept. 3 and plunged into attack mode. They launched joint police-military offensives against the MILF and civilians. Since then, more than 500,000 people, mostly women and children, have been forced to abandon homes and thrown into refugee camps. Now, one-third of the Philippines is on the verge of erupting into open warfare. I'm not talking about your garden variety guerilla skirmishes here and there. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front and their allies have proven capable of launching conventional maneuvers into the theater in the past. Add to that milieu the very vibrant Communist led New People's Army Southern Command and of course the reactionary group Abu Sayyaf - then you have a situation that could explode into a conflict that could rival the Balkans in the 90's.