Fighting threatens Moro-RP peace talks
Fighting threatens Moro-RP peace talks
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP): Fighting has broken out between Philippine government forces and the main Moro rebel group, the MNLF, threatening to scuttle this week's crucial peace talks, officials said.
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari warned he would boycott the three-day negotiations set to start Wednesday in Davao City after MNLF rebels fought a three-hour battle with Army special forces, backed by helicopter gunships, in southern Basilan island Sunday.
Army officials said there could have been heavy casualties on the MNLF side but could not confirm news reports that two air force helicopter pilots were wounded.
MNLF spokesman Mohammad Sali Apostol quoted Misuari as saying he will not attend the Davao talks if the military's Southern Command will not give an explanation for the clash, which he says violates a cease-fire signed by the two forces to pave the way for the negotiations.
Misuari arrived in the southern island of Jolo near Basilan on Sunday for the talks, which both sides have described as crucial after an informal meeting in Jakarta earlier this month.
During the Jakarta talks, Misuari indicated that a compromise was within reach to settle over 20 years of separatist strife in the main southern island of Mindanao.
Col. Antonio Santos, an army brigade commander, said more than 100 armed men from the MNLF's "National Security Command," which guards Misuari, were about to land in Pilas island off Basilan when soldiers guarding an outpost there refused them entry, sparking the gun battle.
Basilan's police commander, Senior Superintendent Constantino Sayson, said some 500 civilians were evacuated for fear of their getting caught in the crossfire.
The southern command headquarters in Zamboanga is also checking reports that hundreds of MNLF rebels from the nearby islands of Sulu and Basilan were on their way to Pilas to reinforce their comrades.
Government negotiators were not immediately available for comment on Misuari's threat to boycott the talks.
In a separate development, two incidents suspected of being intended to derail the forthcoming talks raised tension overnight in Zamboanga.
A security guard was injured before dawn yesterday after two men aboard a motorcycle hurled a grenade at the liquefied gas retail shop he was guarding.
The grenade explosion injured the guard and shattered windows at the shop but as the gas cylinders inside were all empty, no further explosions were ignited, police said.
Hours earlier, a man checked into a small hotel room in Zamboanga late Sunday but then fled soon after an employee noticed he was carrying gasoline.
Two plastic containers of gasoline, matches and an improvised fuse were found inside his room after he fled, police said.
The Davao talks, the latest in the three-year-old peace process, are aimed creating a Moslem autonomous region in Mindanao, which this country's Moslem minority has claimed as their ancestral homeland.