Philippine Clashes Continue as Troops Set Sights on Muslim Rebels
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Version 0 of 1. MANILA — Government troops pushed ahead in an offensive aimed at driving Muslim rebels out of the poor coastal communities outside the southern city of Zamboanga, where they have been holding hostages since Monday. Officials said that nearly 100 rebels had been killed or captured. Officials also said many of the rebels, members of the Moro National Liberation Front, had cast off their military fatigues in an effort to blend in with the civilian population. The weeklong standoff with the rebels in Zamboanga, one of the most vibrant trading cities in the southern Philippines, was believed to have killed at least 55 people, most of them rebels. It has also raised fears of a setback in the government’s efforts, backed by the United States, to calm insurgencies and combat terrorism. Most of the dead were rebels who took cover in several seaside neighborhoods, the government said, where Philippine forces were firing mortar rounds and battling house to house. The interior secretary, Mar Roxas, said 42 rebels had been captured. The situation was serious enough that the country’s top civilian and military leaders traveled to the city over the weekend, despite the violence, to plan their strategy. President Benigno S. Aquino III arrived Friday, with one of his escort helicopters taking small-arms fire as he landed. The crisis has crippled the once-peaceful city, a mostly Christian enclave on the island of Mindanao, and displaced more than 67,000 people. There were conflicting reports about how the standoff began last Monday morning. The police said several hundred armed men from the Moro National Liberation Front landed by boat in Zamboanga and tried to raise their flag over City Hall and declare independence from the national government. When police officers and the military tried to stop them, the police said, the insurgents took hostages and retreated to the city’s Muslim slums. Rebel leaders have said that their march to City Hall was peaceful and that the military attacked them. Since then, government officials said, they have tried to evacuate civilians in the affected area, but it remained unclear on Sunday how many hostages were still being held. Hopes for a cease-fire briefly emerged Saturday when the vice president — a political rival of Mr. Aquino’s — announced an informal truce with the rebels. But the fighting never let up, and the president’s aides said subsequently that Mr. Aquino would coordinate military actions as well as any efforts to engage the rebels in talks. During a briefing on Sunday, Zamboanga’s mayor, Beng Climaco, said she was not aware of any negotiations with the rebels. Ramon Zagal, a military spokesman, said at the briefing that the rebels would have to surrender if they sought to end the standoff. Less than a year ago, Mr. Aquino achieved relative peace in the region by winning a deal with a much larger rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The various insurgencies in the region are driven in part by Muslims’ beliefs that the Christian-dominated national government has left them out of economic development. In addition to Mr. Aquino and Mr. Roxas, attendees at a strategy planning session on Saturday included the vice president, Jejomar Binay, and the secretary of national defense, Voltaire Gazmin. Mr. Roxas told reporters that the military’s plan had been to prevent the violence from spreading to other parts of the city. That was accomplished, he said, and though he declined to offer details, he said the military was trying to clear the rebels out of the neighborhoods they were holding. According to Mr. Roxas, three civilians were killed in the fighting and 28 were wounded. In addition, three police officers and two members of the military were killed. Mr. Roxas said that the bodies of 21 rebels had been recovered, and that 26 others had also been reported killed. Some of the bodies, he said, were burned in fires the government said the rebels had set. Military officials said Sunday that about 100 rebels were still in the area. More than 400 homes in the rebel-held areas have been burned, and major sections of the city were impassable. The airport had been closed for six days, and commercial ships have been asked to move away from the port area for security reasons. |