Villagers flee as government forces, MILF guerrillas clash

COTABATO CITY — Marauding Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas clashed with government forces in Carmen, North Cotabato over the weekend, forcing hundreds of villagers to evacuate to safer areas.

Local officials in Carmen have confirmed that a rebel was killed in the ensuing firefight in Barangay Liliongan, where MILF forces are scattered.

Military and police investigators said the hostilities erupted when a group of MILF rebels opened fire at barangay officials on their way to an isolated village in Liliongan to settle a dispute involving two Muslim families.

The barangay chairman of Carmen, Eddie Saberola, said they had coordinated with a local commander of the MILF for their entry into the area but another group reportedly involved in the propagation of marijuana plants, blocked their path, provoking a firefight.

"They must have thought that we are going to raid their marijuana plantation," Saberola said, adding that they received information from evacuees that a rebel was killed in the ensuing firefight.

Eid Kabalu, MILF’s spokesman, said that the military and civilian volunteers who encroached into Sitio Napalikan provoked the hostilities.

Kabalu said MILF rebels in the area where holding a dialogue there on the gains of the ongoing peace talks when the approaching government forces, led by barangay officials, opened fire without warning.

Saberola said more than a hundred families in the area have evacuated to neutral ground for fear of getting caught in the crossfire.

Members of the joint ceasefire committee and the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team have been trying to amicably settle the trouble since Sunday in Barangay Liliongan.