Ceasefire between Philippine gov't troops, rebels breached

A firefighting Wednesday erupted between the Philippine government troops and the rebel group, MoroIslamic Liberation Front (MILF), in the southern province, breaking a two-year truce weeks before possible peace talks, the military said.

Brig. Gen Alexander Yano, Chairman of Coordinating Committee onthe Cessation of Hostilities, said that there was still no reported casualties resulted from the clashes in Mamasapano town of Maguindanao province around 3 a.m..

Yano said that the MILF members simultaneously harassed three detachments of Civilian Volunteers Organization in adjacent villages.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu, however, blamed the military for starting the 5-hour fighting.

The fighting breached a two-year truce that was being observed by more than 60 international military monitors from Brunei and Malaysia.

Yano said that committee members along with representatives of the MILF and the International Monitoring Team were proceeding to the area to check into the incident.

"We will let the (ceasefire committee) handle the matter first," Yano said, adding that the military is on standby.

However, he said that the military was checking into reports that the MILF was massing its forces in the area.

The government and the MILF agreed to involve the internationalceasefire monitor team on June 22, 2001.

Both government and MILF officials earlier had said that the formal peace negotiations would resume immediately after the arrival of the international monitoring team and their subsequent deployment in south Philippines.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been fighting to set up a separate Islamic state in the southern island of Mindanao.

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