Sun.Star Breaking News

MANILA - Aid workers stepped up food assistance Thursday to hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians in the southely Christian towns Aug. 18, shooting and hacking to death dozens of civilians.

The government said at least 47 civilians have been killed in the fighting and more than 360,000 have been displaced. At least 17 soldiers and pro-government militiamen and up to 100 guerrillas also were killed, according to the military. The rebels say they lost only 10 fighters.

The UN World Food Program said it was scaling up food assistance to more than 220,000 people with the delivery of nearly 1,000 tons of rice - around one month’s ration.

“We have rice stocks at a warehouse in Cotabato, close to the affected area, and we’ve acted quickly to move food out to where it is most needed,” said WFP country director Stephen Anderson.

Some 18 rebel camps were captured in the 10 days of fighting, and guerrilla resistance has “considerably weakened” with only two small encounters Wednesday, said army Lt. Gen. Cardozo Luna, who led the offensive.

“They either ran out of bullets or encountered heavy casualties,” he told The Associated Press. “There has been a serious downgrade of their combat capabilities.”

Late Wednesday, troops overran the main camp of one of three rebel commanders who are the targets of the offensive, said army Brig. Gen. Mark Supnet.

He said mortar shells used for making bombs were recovered at Camp Bilal, which was also used for training guerrillas in Poona Piagapo township in Lanao del Norte province.

The rebels offered resistance only at the outskirts of the camp before they abandoned it. The military suffered no casualties and it was unclear whether the rebels suffered casualties, Supnet said.

The rebels blamed the violence on frustration over a delay in formalizing a peace accord. But they have refused government demands to hand over the three commanders, saying they will subject them to their own investigation.

Fears of a full-scale war have failed to materialize, as the rest of the 11,000-strong rebel units refrained from joining the battles in central and northern Mindanao, the main southern region and
traditional homeland of minority Muslims.

Rebel vice chairman Ghazali Jaafar urged both sides to “calm the situation” in observance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts next week. But Eduardo Ermita, the Cabinet’s most senior member, said there will be no letup in military operations.

“Nobody has told us to stop,” Luna said. “We do not stop pre-empting a criminal when there’s Christmas.” (AP)

Top stories