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Tuesday, March 14, 2006
11 killed, 5 wounded in clash between soldiers, rebels
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- At least 11 rebels and soldiers were killed and five others seriously wounded in fierce fighting between security forces and communist insurgents in the southern province of Agusan del Sur, officials said Monday.
Officials said at least eight New People's Army (NPA) rebels and three soldiers were killed in the fighting that broke out Sunday in the villages of Don Pedro and Dimasalang in San Luis town, said Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Simbahon, the spokesman for the Army's 4th Infantry Division.
Simbahon said a still undetermined number of rebels and five soldiers were also wounded in the clashes. "Operations against the New People's Army are ongoing and General Cardozo Luna ordered intensified combat to neutralize the enemies," he said.
Luna is the commander of the 4th Infantry Division based in Cagayan de Oro City in northern Mindanao.
In Zamboanga City, the Southern Command said the soldiers who died in the fighting were victims of a landmine explosion. "The rebels detonated a landmine and killed the three soldiers," said Major Gamal Hayudini.
Both spokesmen did not identify any of those killed, but other sources said one of them was an army lieutenant who sustained a fatal wound from the explosion.
But Hayudini condemned the NPA for using anti-personnel landmines -- which is banned around the world under the Geneva Convention -- in carrying out attacks against security forces.
"The use of landmines is banned around the world and we condemn the NPA for their continuous use of these types of explosives," he said.
Aside from the Geneva Convention, the 1997 Ottawa Convention, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty, prohibits the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel mines.
On Friday, two government soldiers were also killed and 11 others wounded in separate clashes between the military and NPA forces in the provinces of Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), is fighting for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country.
Peace negotiations between Manila and the rebels collapsed in 2004 following the NDF pullout from the talks due to its continued inclusion in the terror lists of the United States and the European Union.
Rebel leaders demanded that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ask the United States and the European Union to strike them off from the terror lists before they resume peace talks.
The rebels have vowed to step up attacks on government targets after Manila suspended safety and immunity guarantee for their negotiators following the collapse of the peace talks.
The military has accused the CPP and the NPA of forging an alliance with rightist soldiers to oust Arroyo and put up a coalition-revolutionary government. (Al Jacinto of Sun.Star Zamboanga/Sunnex)
(March 14, 2006 issue)
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