 MILF blames govt for crisis in peace talks
* It is NEVER the jihadists who are to blame. Because they’re fighting in Allah’s way…
* No wonder: concessions to the Moro’s, the Muslim separatists in Mindanao, are always seen as weakness and embolden the jihadists. A separate Muslim homeland will never lead to a political settlement, it will only encourage the ‘Mujaheddin’ to conquer all of the Philippines, in the way of Allah:
*Â MILF blames govt for crisis in peace talks
Military reports on the ground said Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon (above) was shot in the hand when troops attacked early on Wednesday, but he managed to flee into a jungle-clad mountainous area.Â
Abu Sayyaf leader wounded, son killed in Philippine offensive
JOLO – A LEADER of the militant Abu Sayyaf group was wounded and his son was among several killed in a major Philippine military offensive in troubled southern Jolo island, an official said on Thursday.
Military reports on the ground said Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon was shot in the hand when troops attacked early on Wednesday, but he managed to flee into a jungle-clad mountainous area.
His son, Tabari, also an Abu Sayyaf guerrilla, was ‘fatally wounded in the head and abdomen,’ regional military spokesman Major Eugene Batara said.
The offensive led to the capture of a sprawling Abu Sayyaf camp in a remote Jolo town, where they were said to be training and assembling bombs with members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Al-Qaeda’s Southeast Asian arm.
The rebels incurred ‘heavy casualties,’ the military said, without giving an actual body count.
Hapilon is the last of two surviving leaders of the Abu Sayyaf who engineered daring kidnapping raids and bombing attacks early in the decade.
The US government has offered a US$5 million (S$6.7 million) reward for his capture.
The other elusive Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Pula has a 100,000 dollar bounty on his head.
The Abu Sayyaf is a small gang of Islamic militants that once directly received funding from Al-Qaeda, but has since degenerated into a criminal gang specialising in kidnapping, extortion and bombings.
* Hmm. Isn’t that what Muhammad, the Islamic ‘prophet’ was doing? Could it be that these people follow his teachings which they call “religion?”
Security experts say it has in recent years developed an alliance with the JI, a radical grouping pushing for an Islamic caliphate across Southeast Asia.
* But but but: haven’t we just been told that Jemmah Islamiyah doesn’t exist and can’t be banned by Indonesia’s interior minister?
The JI has been blamed for the region’s worst terrorist attacks in recent years, including a 2002 night club attack that killed 202 people in Bali, Indonesia.
Two of JI’s top bomb experts, Dulmatin and Umar Patek, are believed to be somewhere in the south of the Philippines.
The military initially reported Dulmatin was killed in a clash early this year, but Indonesian authorities have said DNA tests on the remains proved inconclusive. — AFP
Update:
MILF expels Christians from farms in Philippines
Muslim rebels have forced hundreds of mainly Christian families off their farms in the southern Philippines, escalating tensions in the region ahead of the withdrawal of Malaysian peace monitors next week. Rolando Garcia, mayor of Kalamansig town on the troubled southern island of Mindanao, said that heavily-armed members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) claimed the farmers’ land belonged to the Muslim minority.
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 Malaysian mediator tells Philippine government to disregard the constitution and give Muslims what they want:
Philippines must move to restart peace talks with Muslim group, Malaysian mediator says
 Othman said Manila’s insistence on the constitutional issue was “a constraint.”
“It really boils down to the political will of the government,” he said. “If the government wants the talks to progress, it can do it. It can think creatively. But if it wants to stick to the constitution, things will not move.”
Update:
Muslim rebels in the Philippines withdraw from village, allow Christians to return
* Seems to be a tactical move to gain a strategic advantage in the long term. Obviously, the MILF’s can take it back anytime:
MANILA, Philippines: Muslim separatist rebels withdrew from a southern Philippine village and allowed about 1,000 Christian farmers to return after tensions flared over a land dispute, a military official said Monday.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas entered the village in Sultan Kudarat province last Wednesday demanding food, confiscating rice and sending Christian residents fleeing, Mayor Rolando Garcia said.
Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said the occupation occurred because of competing claims to the land, but the action had not been approved by rebel leaders.
About 300 rebels withdrew over the weekend following talks with the provincial government, said Col. Danilo Garcia, a regional military commander.
“It’s all about a land conflict,” he said, adding the rebels claimed that Christian settlers had no right to be there.
* Actually NOT. Its to establish Islam as the only religion. Infidels have no right to live anywhere on this earth except as Dhimmies, subjugated peoples, in slavelike conditions. Stay tuned: looks like they’re getting there…
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Surely the USA will not let the Philippines fall. This is the place to make a stand in the Pacific – it has to mean a lot. Yet if the pollies will not call it for what it is and what it represents then doom surely waits regardless of some good work being done. Someone has to make the call ‘Unconditional Surrender’. It is no good leaving a shit in the toilet. It must be flushed away completely.
Any ground given up is a beach head lost. The Philippine government needs all the support it can get but given the current behaviour of our supposed leaders with their predisposition to kiss Allah’s arse the Philippine government must be feeling lonely indeed.