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| Philippine soldiers take up positions behind an armored personnel carrier during clashes in Zamboanga, in the southern Philippines. Nine people have died and thousands have been displaced by a three-day standoff with Muslim rebels holding about 200 hostages and using them as human shields. (Dennis M. Sabangan / European Pressphoto Agency / September 11, 2013) |
Philippine government troops Wednesday reportedly "contained" hundreds of Muslim rebels who have held nearly 200 hostages and key areas of the southern port city of Zamboanga for three days, the state-run Philippines News Agency reported.
But the accounts of independent media conveyed a more dire picture of the standoff with fighters from the breakaway Moro National Liberation Front, who descended on the port Monday and opened fire on police and soldiers.
The rebels, whose operation has killed at least nine, are demanding the creation of an Islamic-ruled enclave on the resource-rich southern island of Mindanao.
Government forces have established a "demarcation line" to prevent the rebels from invading other areas of the city, PNA reported. But the militants were reported to have seized more hostages Wednesday and had lashed about 200 into a human shield behind which they were negotiating, the Philippine Star reported from Zamboanga.
Local government Secretary Manuel Roxas II was quoted by PNA as saying police and army reinforcements were being brought in to drive the insurgents from the port, a vital transport and shipping hub that has been locked down for three days and was due to stay idle at least through Thursday.
More than 13,000 residents were evacuated to prevent further hostage-taking, Roxas said. He also described the military approach to the confrontation as a "nonaggressive stance," to minimize casualties.
Zamboanga Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco Salazar said the rebels were demanding international mediation. She told the Associated Press that a former governor of Sulu province, the rebels' stronghold, had attempted to talk to the gunmen but that "they refuse to listen to anybody locally."
The MNLF was founded in 1971. Four decades of fighting have taken at least 120,000 lives in the restive southern region.
The Manila government in 1996 signed a truce with the rebels that was supposed to have given them control of an autonomous area within the predominately Roman Catholic country.
But the front has resumed sporadic hostile actions since 2001, claiming the government has failed to deliver on its promises of support for the enclave.
The rebel group has also refused to abide by a truce and resource-sharing agreement signed last year by Manila and the now-rival Moro Islamic Liberation Front also seeking autonomy for Philippine Muslims of the Moro nation.
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Philippine troops battled Muslim rebels on two fronts Thursday, after the insurgents attacked a second town near the southern port where they are holding scores of residents hostage in a standoff with government forces.
The rebels attacked predominantly Christian outskirts of Lamitan town in Basilan province on Thursday morning, said Vice Mayor Roderick Furigay. Five people were missing and two wounded, he said.
A regional governor, Mujiv Hataman, said that the assault was repulsed. Authorities said earlier they were monitoring the movement of rebel forces in that area and Hataman said that residents had already evacuated Wednesday.
Basilan island province is a boat ride away from Zamboanga city, where Moro National Liberation Front fighters have been holding more than 100 hostages since Monday, when government troops repulsed their attempt to erect a rebel flag at city hall.
The three-day crisis has virtually paralyzed Zamboanga, a lively trading city of nearly a million people, with most flights and ferry services suspended. Communities near the clashes resembled a war zone, with armored troop carriers lining streets, troops massing at a school and snipers taking positions atop buildings. A mosque and its minaret were pockmarked with bullet holes.
Nearly 15,000 villagers have fled from the fighting and took shelter at a grandstand in a seaside sports complex and schools. Troops were under orders to prevent the rebels from straying beyond the communities they have seized or getting reinforcements, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said.
The rebels signed a peace deal in 1996, but their faction leader accuses the government of reneging on a promise to develop the impoverished, restive region. The rebel leader, Nur Misuari, has isolated himself and set out on a collision course with the government when he voiced opposition to the ongoing peace talks between the Philippines and the currently-dominant rebel movement, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The talks have steadily progressed toward a new and potentially larger Muslim autonomy deal, but Misuari felt left out. Last month, his group issued new threats to secede by establishing its own republic.
At least nine combatants and villagers have been killed since the standoff in Zamboanga began, officials said. President Benigno Aquino III has sent top Cabinet officials and his military chief of staff to oversee the security crisis in the country's restive south, the scene of decades-long Muslim unrest in this predominantly Roman Catholic nation.
Misuari has not appeared in public or issued any statement since his followers barged into Zamboanga city's coast early Monday and clashed with soldiers and police.
A gunbattle erupted at rebel-held Santa Catalina village on Wednesday, where an AP photographer saw from a distance about 30 villagers, believed to be hostages, who waved white cloths in front of a house and yelled, "Don't fire, don't fire."
Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco said the rebels were demanding international mediation, adding that the rebels have so far refused to talk with provincial officials.
"They say that it's an international problem, and no less than the international community, the U.N., should come in," she told ABS-CBN TV network.
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