By Carlos H. Conde
The New York Times
International Herald Tribune
Published: August 18, 2008
MANILA: Islamic separatists attacked several towns and villages Monday in the troubled southern Philippine region of Mindanao, killing at least 28 people in a rampage that, officials said, included hacking several people with machetes and spraying bullets into buses.
The attacks came as tens of thousands of villagers in other areas of Mindanao were returning to their homes following the fighting last week between government troops and the Muslim rebels.
News reports from Mindanao said several of the victims had been hacked with machetes. The rebels, according to officials, also burned down houses. The police said that the fatalities were mostly civilians, mainly farmers, while an undetermined number were soldiers.
Officials said more than 200 rebels attacked at least four towns in two provinces in Mindanao.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo called the attacks “sneaky and treacherous” and ordered the military and the police “to defend every inch of Philippine territory” against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the main Islamic separatist group operating in Mindanao.
“I will crush any attempt to disturb peace and development in Mindanao,” the president said in a radio address.
The civilians were killed when the rebels withdrew, said Brigadier General Hilario Atendido, a military commander in the area. “They used them as human shields,” Atendido said, speaking on the radio station DZBB. “The rebels killed them on their way out.”
According to news reports, the rebels also took several residents as hostages. A bus driver told a radio station in Mindanao that the rebels, shouting “Kill them all!” fired on his bus. The driver did not say how many of his passengers were wounded or killed.
Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo, the governor of Lanao del Sur Province, said that the rebels were moving toward Christian-dominated towns in the coastal areas and that the military was directing its forces to protect those places.
“The military is doubling its forces,” he told ABS-CBN television. “The highest priority now is to secure the coastal towns.”
Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the rebel front, said it was still checking reports that the attackers were rebels. He urged the public “not to jump to conclusions” as the front investigated the attacks.
But in case the rebels were front members, Kabalu urged them to stop the violence and to pull out of the province. He said the Moro Islamic Liberation Front did not issue any directive to carry out the attacks.
The violence this week, which began on Sunday in Lanao del Sur, where four soldiers and four military-supported militia members were killed, is certain to complicate the peace negotiations between the government and the front.
Two weeks ago, both sides had reached an agreement that they thought could end the fighting. But it was scuttled because of protests over the concessions that were to be given to the Muslim rebels. Government negotiators then said they were willing to abandon the peace agreement because of the backlash it caused in the Philippines. Analysts had said the breakdown of the talks could lead to more violence.
The new attacks, said the army chief, General Alexander Yano, were a “clear manifestation of the insincerity to the peace process of a significant portion” of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. This, he added, “is a virtual declaration of war against the duly constituted authority.”
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