Mindanao peace process should continue despite bloodbath: rebels

Dozens of police commandos and five rebels killed in southern Philippines.

Authorities recover the bodies of police commandos who died in an encounter with Moro rebels in Mindanao on Sunday

Manila: 

A Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines says it is still committed to pursuing peace in troubled Mindanao, but deadly clashes on Sunday pose a major test for the long-delayed peace process.

Both rebel and government officials said Monday that a tenuous ceasefire was holding, only a day after an 11-hour gun battle ended in a bloodbath, with dozens of police commandos and at least five rebel fighters killed.

As of Monday afternoon local time, the government confirmed that 44 of its elite police commandos were killed. However, sources in the military and among rebel groups told ucanews.com that up to 64 died on both sides during the operation, the majority coming from the police commando unit.

The fighting started when police entered the remote town of Mamasapano, held by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), on Sunday. The members of the elite Special Action Force had been targeting Zulkifli bin Hir, a Jema'ah Islamiyah bomber, according to a military source. Zulkifli has a US$5 million bounty for terror attacks and is listed on the most wanted terrorist list of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mohagher Iqbal, MILF's chief peace negotiator, told reporters at a press conference on Monday that the police "entered our area and attacked us”.

"What are we going to do? You cannot baby them,” Iqbal said. “What happened was self-defence.”

He said authorities failed to coordinate with the ceasefire committee and the joint action group established by the government and MILF after the peace deal last year.

Von Al Haq, the MILF's vice-chairman for military affairs, said five rebel fighters died during the attack.

"This should be a lesson to everybody not to ignore the ceasefire mechanism and to understand more the ongoing peace process," Al Haq said.

The incident on Sunday was the first armed clash between the government and the MILF after the two sides signed a peace deal in March last year. Iqbal said the MILF is doing all it can diffuse tensions after the battle.

But he said the group was concerned the fighting would affect the passage of legislation meant to formalize the peace process. The Philippine Senate on Monday suspended discussion of the proposed legislation, known as the Bangsamoro Basic Law.

“The peace process is important,” Iqbal said. “It's unfortunate that people died, but we cannot bring them back [to life]. What’s important is coordination to prevent these things from happening.”

Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, called the incident "a violation” of last year’s ceasefire deal, but said it underscored the importance of continuing the peace process and not delaying passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law.

"Technically, there is still war in Mindanao…. There is [still] no solution to the real problem in Mindanao,” Jaafar said in a phone interview. “So until the solution to the real problem in Mindanao is being implemented, Mindanao remains as it is.”

Representative Carlos Zarate of the progressive party Bayan Muna (Nation First), said the recent incident "showed that finding genuine peace in Mindanao is still as elusive as before".

"As it is now, very clearly there are groups that are apparently still left behind under the present scheme of things because it is not fully addressing the Moro people's historical quest for self-determination," said Zarate, who is from Mindanao. He called for a “thorough investigation” of Sunday’s events.

Sunday's bloodbath highlighted "security challenges" but nonetheless strengthened the resolve of negotiators, government peace panel chairperson Miriam Coronel-Ferrer said in a statement.

The 10,000-member MILF had agreed to end decades of rebellion in the mainly Catholic nation in exchange for a proposed law now being debated in parliament that would give minority Muslims self-rule in several southern provinces.

The rebels were scheduled to start disarming at the start of this year under the peace treaty.

Sourca: ucanews.com