Articles about rebellionYear: 2013

September 14, 2013: Dissident members of the MNLF (a Moslem separatist group that made peace with the government in 1996) continue to hold civilians as human shields in the southern port city of Zamboanga and the nearby island of Basilan. Despite heavy losses in nearly a week of fighting, there are still about a hundred MNLF gunmen, in six locations in Zamboanga and Basilan holding nearly 200 civilians as human shields and surrounded by several thousand soldiers, who are backed up by as many police plus pro-government militiamen. Before this outbreak the MNLF had, for the most part, kept its part of the two decade old peace deal. Many MNLF members joined the police and army and others remained as part of local self-defense militias. But some MNLF members are upset with the peace talks conducted with the MILF, another separatist group that kept fighting and is finalizing a new treaty that will create an autonomous Moslem state in the southern Philippines. These MNLF dissidents resent the attention, and power, being given to MILF. This rivalry with the MILF has been going on for decades, as has the appearance of dissident MNLF groups.

One of these made a similar attack in Zamboanga in 2001, which was settled peacefully. But over the last decade some dissident MNLF men have joined Islamic terror group Abu Sayyaf, in addition to those who skirmish with MILF rivals and then make peace. MNLF was founded in the early 1970s, about six years before the more radical MILF got started. There has always been lots of factionalism in the Moslem south, usually based on clan feuds. But political and religious differences have also caused lots of unrest. The separatist violence instigated by the MNLF and MILF have left nearly 200,000 dead, most of them Moslems in the south. The current MNLF uprising is largely driven by the fear that the MILF will control the new autonomous Moslem government in the south and will keep most of the money (local government funds, which everyone expects will be plundered by government, mostly MILF, leaders) for themselves, leaving the MNLF out. People in this part of the Philippines have long gone to war over less.

10/23/2013 11:06 GMT MANILA, October 23, 2013 (AFP) - Philippine President Benigno

Aquino said Wednesday he was confident of ending a decades-old Muslim insurgency before he stepped down in 2016, despite slow progress at peace talks.

The government had hoped to secure a final peace pact with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) this year but negotiations have become bogged down, raising concerns about whether all other steps can be completed before Aquino's term ends.

Asked at a foreign correspondents' forum whether he remained confident of completing the peace process by mid-2016, Aquino replied: "yes", and said he preferred delays in the negotiations to a hastily arranged pact with flaws.

"Crafting the correct agreement that is liveable and doable by all (feasible) will necessarily take time," Aquino said.

"And (it's) better to have a good deal rather than to have any deal that is not liveable by all parties.“

Aquino also insisted the talks were making progress, citing key agreements on sensitive issues this year.

Muslim rebels have been fighting since the 1970s for an autonomous or independent homeland in the southern Philippines, with the conflict having claimed an estimated 150,000 lives.

The MILF is the largest remaining rebel group yet to sign a peace accord.

The peace talks aim to create an autonomous region for the Muslim minority in Mindanao, the southern third of the mainly Catholic nation of 100 million people.

A preliminary accord signed in October last year outlined the broad terms for a peace treaty, but did not focus on the toughest issues such as power sharing in the autonomous region and disarming the 12,000 MILF guerrillas.

After the treaty is signed, the Philippine parliament would still need to pass a "basic law" for the Muslim self-rule area, and people in the planned autonomous region would need to ratify it via a regional plebiscite.

The 2016 timetable is important because Aquino is limited by the constitution to a single term as president of six years, and there is no guarantee his successor would have the political strength or enthusiasm to push ahead with the peace process.

A boy hostage is reunited with his mother after being processed at the Philippine National Police Camp Gen. Eduardo Batalla in Zamboanga, Sept. 17, 2013.

In the vast southern Philippine island of Mindanao, deadly clashes between Philippine government forces and fighters from a separatist outfit, reportedly holding dozens of hostages, continue to rage. Whole districts of the city of Zamboanga, perched on the western edge of Mindanao, have been evacuated as gun battles ring around its streets. The Moro National Liberation Front, which claims to represent the island’s Muslims, has waged a longstanding insurgency against rule from Manila. Despite advances by Philippine government troops, who say they have reclaimed 70 percent of the areas of Zamboanga seized by Islamist insurgents in early September, an estimated 100 guerrilla fighters remain holed up in the southern Philippine city together with more than 100 hostages. Some 80,000 residents of the area have fled the violence.