Nearly quarter million displaced by RP fighting

Nearly quarter million displaced by RP fighting

Agence France-Presse, Manila

Nearly a quarter million people were displaced by fighting
between government troops and Muslim separatists in the southern
Philippines last month and remain fearful of returning home,
officials said on Tuesday.

Government officials plan to declare the area of the Liguasan
Marsh on Mindanao island a de facto demilitarized zone to entice
the displaced residents to return, members of President Gloria
Arroyo's cabinet told a joint news conference.

The military mounted a major offensive in the area in mid-
February to pursue kidnappers and terror bombing suspects
allegedly being sheltered by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF), the country's largest Muslim separatist guerrilla force.
The fighting left nearly 200 people dead.

"The total number of families affected is 40,153 and the total
number of individuals is 214,000," Social Welfare Secretary
Corazon Soliman told the press briefing.

Twelve of the 101 government-run shelters put up by the
government for the displaced had since been closed down, but the
centers remain packed and 12 people had died due to various
diseases, she added.

Some families have attempted to return home, but they
experienced after a day or two harassment from elements of the
12,500-member MILF and other armed groups operating in the area,
specifically the Pentagon kidnap gang, Soliman said.

"They (gunmen) would fire at the (pro-government militia)
detachments and or the Army detachments, so what happens is they
(residents) go back to the evacuation centers," she added.

The MILF has rejected a cease-fire and has since launched
sabotage attacks, blacking out 90 percent of the island last week
by blowing up power transmission towers.

Jesus Dureza, a presidential assistant and peace negotiator
with the MILF, said the Arroyo cabinet decided at a meeting
Tuesday that parts of the Liguasan Marsh, including the towns of
Pikit, Pagalungan and Pagagawan in central Mindanao to be
declared a "zone of peace".

"We will move out our troops from the population centers and
we'll just be in the periphery to secure and try to make sure
that there will be no further intrusions from any armed groups,"
added armed forces chief of staff Gen. Dionisio Santiago.

Police would enter the population centers only to prevent
criminal activities, he said.

Asked if the government would ask the MILF to cooperate,
Dureza said: "I'm sure cooperation from the MILF will be good, a
welcome development if we can.

"But the government is determined to take the initiative in
pushing for this because we feel that this is the right thing to
do for our people in the area."

Dureza said the government is attempting to restart stalled
peace talks with the MILF, which has been waging a 25-year
campaign to set up an Islamic state in the southern third of the
mainly Roman Catholic Philippine islands.