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COTABATO CITY: Muslim separatists torched the homes of 30 Christian
families in an attack on a farming hamlet of Sangay in Sulu
province, the military said Thursday.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
reported no casualties following Wednesday’s raid, but the rebels
are still occupying the area, said regional military spokesman Lt.
Col. Julieto Ando.
“The rebels set on fire a total of 30 houses
of Christian civilians. The problem there has something to do with
land conflict,” Ando told reporters.
Some 500 families have fled Sangay for the
nearby town of Kalamansig, Ando added.
The military estimates about 150 armed
guerrillas deployed in the village after it was sacked.
The government suspended peace talks with the
12,000-member MILF last year after the guerrillas attacked Christian
villages across Mindanao in protest.
The draft accord, subsequently ruled
unconstitutional by the court, would have given the MILF control
over large areas of Mindanao that it deems as the large Islamic
minority’s “ancestral domain.”
The fighting at one point displaced half a
million civilians, according to international relief agencies that
continue to serve the affected population.
-- AFP
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