AFP-MILF skirmishes down to 8 last year

MANILA, Philippines - The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has said that its skirmishes with the military had gone down to just eight last year from 14 in 2010.

Among the eight clashes last year was the bloody encounter in Al-Barka, Basilan that left 19 soldiers and five MILF fighters dead.

Said Sheikh, chairman of the MILF Committee on Cessation of Hostilities, attributed the lower number of violent incidents to the presence of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team.

He also cited the “active and good coordination” between the government and MILF ceasefire committees.

Sheikh said both sides are requiring their respective forces to abide by the ceasefire agreement.

The MILF official, however, warned that things would change if the peace talks would not succeed.

“Radicals and hard-headed sectors on both camps can take advantage of the uneasy situation,” Sheikh said in a statement posted on the MILF website luwaran.com.

He said the number of violent incidents suddenly went up in October because of the armed encounters in Al-Barka and Payao, Zamboanga Sibugay.

“Only two skirmishes were recorded up to September 2011 but in October, it suddenly shot up from two to eight because of the Al-Barka and Payao incidents,” he said.

Nineteen soldiers died and 14 others were wounded after Special Forces encountered around 400 MILF fighters in Sitio Baisung, Barangay Cambug in Al-Barka last Oct. 18.

Soldiers who figured in the clash were supposed to serve a warrant of arrest on MILF commander Dan Laksaw Asnawi, who was tagged in the 2007 killing of 14 Marines in Basilan, lawless element Long Malat, and Abu Sayyaf leader Furuji Indama.

A week after the Al-Barka incident, military elite troops overran and captured the camp of lawless elements led by Waning Abdusalam in Payao town.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) welcomed the decline of violent incidents involving the MILF, saying this is a “very positive development” toward achieving lasting peace.

“This is indicative that the government’s peace initiatives that the AFP continuously supports are really gaining ground,” said AFP spokesman Col. Arnulfo Burgos Jr.

“The AFP will continue to exhaust all avenues to achieve a just and lasting peace for our country,” he added.