Foreign Correspondence

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What is behind the fighting in the Philippines' Zamboanga?

By Jonathan Head South East Asia correspondent, BBC News
13 September 2013 Last updated at 11:15 GMT


Philippine troops continue to battle insurgents in Zamboanga city on Friday

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Zamboanga is the sixth largest city in the Philippines, and a vital hub for the economy of the south. For the past five days, it has been more or less shut down by a confrontation between the army and a group of insurgents from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Yet the MNLF, the group that started its armed campaign against the central government back in the early 1970s, was also the first to make peace, in 1996.

After that, its leader, Nur Misuari, was the governor of an autonomous region for five years. So why did his followers land in Zamboanga, heavily armed, and then take over several districts of the city?

The Misuari issue

The insurgents, numbering around 180, are believed to be led by Habier Malik, a veteran MNLF commander who has been involved in many other armed attacks in the past, including a similar one in Zamboanga 12 years ago.

He is known to be a loyal supporter of Nur Misuari, but according to the government the MNLF leader has denied authorising this latest operation.

For their part, the MNLF gunmen in Zamboanga have said they are fighting for an independent state, not the autonomy the government is negotiating with the larger MILF insurgent group.

The Philippine military still believe Nur Misuari is responsible, and the authorities are considering laying criminal charges against him, although his exact whereabouts are unknown.


The current whereabouts of Nur Misuari (centre) are uncertain

The MNLF's strongholds are in the Sulu archipelago, a sprawling stretch of islands south-west of Zamboanga, where the government's authority is weak, so finding him would be difficult.

This all has striking echoes of the situation 12 years ago. Back then Nur Misuari had announced that he was taking up arms against the government again, after he was ousted as chairman of the MNLF and it split into rival factions.

In November 2001, his men attacked military bases on the island of Jolo. After that, clashes in Zamboanga between the military and some of his forces, who had been allowed to remain there under the 1996 deal, ended with the MNLF taking all of the inhabitants of a nearby neighbourhood hostage, and marching them, roped together, through the streets of the city, until they were allowed to leave.

'Sense of entitlement'

Nur Misuari fled to Malaysia, from where he was extradited back to the Philippines and charged with rebellion. He was eventually released, and the charges dropped seven years later.

At the heart of this particular fight - among several armed conflicts in the southern Philippines - is Nur Misuari's "sense of entitlement", as the government describes it, and his steady marginalisation from the wider peace process.

The Muslims of the south call themselves the Moro people, and they have been rebelling against the central government for centuries.

During the 1970s, Nur Misuari established himself as the pre-eminent leader of the MNLF, and was recognised as the Moro representative by the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which has played a prominent role in trying to end the conflict.

The first serious blow to Misuari's authority was the split in 1978, which led to the establishment of the MILF, based on the main island of Mindanao rather than in the Sulu archipelago.


[hidden inside .. Philippine government peace negotiator Marvic Leonen, right, and Moro Islamic Liberation Front chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, left, shake hands as they exchange signed documents of their tentative peace agreement following a formal signing ceremony at Malacanang Palace in Manila, Philippines as Malaysian peace broker Dato Tengko Abdul Ghafar, centre, and others, second row from left, MILF Chair Al Haj Murad, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Philippine President Benigno Aquino, and Government peace negotiator Teresita Deles look on and applaud ]

The government and the MILF agreed on a ceasefire last year

The MILF refused to negotiate with the government, so then-President Fidel Ramos turned to Nur Misuari to negotiate the landmark 1996 agreement, creating the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which was intended to be a pre-cursor to a more permanent autonomy deal.

But five years later the deal had soured, with Nur Misuari facing widespread criticism over poor leadership and corruption. His supporters blamed the government for failing to give sufficient assistance and funding to run the impoverished and war-damaged ARMM.

Nonetheless he was voted out of the MNLF chairman's seat. The movement is now divided into three main factions, although much of its armed wing remains loyal to Misuari.

Territorial fighting

The situation is complicated by the presence of so many other armed groups and warlords in this region.

There is the militant Islamic group Abu Sayyaf, notorious for kidnapping and murder, and partly comprised of disaffected MNLF fighters. There is the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters group, which split from the MILF during its negotiations with the government. There are also so-called "lost commandos" - fighters who are not members of any group, but may join battles for either profit or principle.


Villagers in the areas affected by the current fighting have fled to safety

So long as the peace talks remained stalled, as they did for most of the past decade, the various groups operated on their own turf, and the army did little to disturb the status quo.

The exception was Abu Sayyaf, which was hit hard in an operation supported by the US military because of its links to al-Qaeda.

But last year the government and the MILF announced a breakthrough in their talks, and signed a ceasefire. In recent months they have made progress in negotiating power and revenue-sharing.

Government officials have made it clear in their comments that they no longer regard Nur Misuari as a negotiating partner. The MILF is a larger group, and has been the tougher opponent in recent years. The hope is clearly that if the peace deal holds, most of the MNLF factions will want to jump on board to make sure they get their share of the benefits.

Nur Misuari has responded with growing indignation, accusing the government of betraying the agreement it signed back in 1996. But even when he dramatically declared an independent Bangsamoro state last month, he promised he would pursue it through peaceful means.

The government will have to decide now whether he authorised the attack on Zamboanga, and what they do with him. None of the other MNLF factions has supported him; he appears isolated.

But excluding him altogether may prove counterproductive, if it reignites the conflict just as a lasting peace seems within reach.

More on This Story
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Sulu: The islands home to Philippine militancy 14 FEBRUARY 2013, ASIA
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21349891
Guide to the Philippines conflict 08 OCTOBER 2012, ASIA
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17038024

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24079198

~~~~~~ .. where in the Philippines is Zamboanga?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines

~~~~~~ .. to make it easier to find where in the Philippines is ..

"Almost 10 months after the Maguindanao massacre that killed at least 57 people, the trial finally
started with a former house helper of the Ampatuans the first to take the witness stand." ..

Maguindanao of the post this replies to?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maguindanao

.. no .. am not suggesting there is any connection, no idea just
now about that .. i just wasn't sure exactly where either place was .. :)

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Philippine helicopters fire rockets at Muslim rebels in Zamboanga siege

Nuno Correia Nuno Correia·190 videos
Published on Sep 16, 2013

Philippine military helicopters on Monday fired rockets at Muslim rebels who were holed up in areas of a major city on the southern island of Mindanao.

The rebels have been holding scores of people hostage in Zamboanga City for the past week in a crisis that authorities estimate has left as many as 61 people dead and more than 150 wounded.

No truce: Army, Islamic militants fight on in Philippines

Intense exchanges of gunfire continued to take place Monday as military officials said they were trying to tighten the noose around rebel-held areas.

Two MG-520 attack helicopters from the Philippine Air Force fired rockets at rebel positions over a roughly 20 minute period in the early afternoon, the official Philippine News Agency reported, citing military officials.

The recent violence has largely paralyzed Zamboanga, a usually bustling trading hub on the southwestern tip of Mindanao, and displaced more than 60,000 people.

The crisis has increased fears of instability in a region where the central government is pursuing a new peace plan after decades of unrest.

President Benigno Aquino III and other top Philippine officials are overseeing the response in Zamboanga, a mainly Christian city.
The Philippine armed forces are carrying out an operation to try to "constrict" the rebels, who came ashore last Monday, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala.

He described the operation as "delicate," as the troops try to avoid harming hostages and any other civilians caught in the parts of Zamboanga where the rebels are holed up.

The rebels now hold one third of the territory they had last week, before the military began its effort to squeeze their positions last Friday, Zagala said. The armed forces switched to a more offensive approach after the rebels fired mortars into civilian areas, he said.

More than 100 hostages

Military officials say they believe that slightly more than 100 rebels remain active in Zamboanga and that they are still holding more than 100 people as a human shield.

Some hostages and other civilians trapped in the rebel-held zone have managed to flee during outbursts of fighting over the past week.

Security forces estimate that they have killed 51 rebels, although only 21 bodies have been recovered. A further 48 rebels have been captured and nine have been wounded, Zagala said.

The violence has killed six members of the Philippine security forces and four civilians, he said. The number of people estimated to have been wounded, including rebels, stands at 157.

The unrest in Zamboanga has closed schools and businesses. Hundreds of houses of houses have caught fire during the fighting. Authorities have accused the rebels of deliberately starting the fires.

The rebels are a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a separatist movement founded in 1971 by Nur Misuari with the aim of establishing an autonomous region for Muslims in the mainly Catholic Philippines. The MNLF signed a peace deal with the central government in Manila in 1996, but some of its members have broken away to continue a violent campaign.

Last month, Misuari issued a "declaration of independence" for the Moro nation -- referring to Mindanao's indigenous Muslim population -- after complaining that the MNLF had been left out of a recent wealth-sharing agreement with another insurgent group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has fought for decades to set up an independent Islamic state on resource-rich Mindanao.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI2D4d-Ud3A

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150 hostages rescued in Zamboanga

Manila Bulletin? - 2 hours ago
http://www.mb.com.ph/150-hostages-rescued-in-zamboanga/