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Muslim separatist guerrillas clashed with government militiamen in
southern Philippines on Thursday despite a breakthrough in
protracted peace talks, a local official said.
Farmers in the town of Aleosan in North Cotabato
in Mindanao saw members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
massing near their rice fields, prompting a brief firefight with the
local militia, said town Mayor Loreto Cabaya.
The firefight lasted around 15 minutes before
the MILF rebels withdrew with no casualties on either side.
In areas troubled by communist or Muslim
insurgencies, the Philippine military trains and equips villagers to
serve as militia units to provide security for their communities.
Cabaya said he suspected the rebels were after
the rice harvest, with MILF forces rarely seen in the area before
harvest time.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the group had
forces in the area but there had been no orders to launch any
attacks.
On Tuesday, a woman was killed and her daughter
wounded when MILF forces attacked a group of farmers also in Aleosan
while President Gloria Arroyo was touring the nearby city of
Cotabato.
The 12,000-strong MILF has been fighting for an
independent Islamic homeland in southern Philippines for decades but
in 2003 the group signed a ceasefire with Manila to pave the way for
peace talks.
The negotiations had been stalled over MILF
demands for greater control of areas they claimed as their
“ancestral domain” but earlier this month both sides achieved a
breakthrough that could revive the negotiations.
-- AFP
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