ZAMBOANGA CITY, 28 June 2006 — At least 25 people were killed in a weeklong gun battle between Muslim farmers and Lumad tribesmen, triggering an exodus of civilians from a remote town in the southern Philippines, officials said yesterday.

The fighting, which began June 20, was triggered by a long-time land dispute between the two groups in the farming town of Talakag near Bukidnon province, said Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, chief of the military’s Southern Command.

“I have directed the commander in the area to stop the fighting and disarm the combatants and arrest those responsible in these senseless killings,” Habacon told Arab News.

The military said the two groups were fighting over a vast tract of land, which is also being claimed by a former government official named Abdulkhair Alonto.

Capt. Jose Ritche Pabilonia, spokesman of the Southern Command, said 23 of the Muslim farmers and two mountain tribesmen had died. Four tribesmen were wounded.

Clan wars, known locally as “rido,” and vendetta killings are common in the southern Philippines, where such feuds often last for decades.

Studies funded by the Asia Foundation and the US Agency for International Development found there had been more than 1,200 clan feuds in the south since the 1930s, killing nearly 5,000 people and displacing tens of thousands.

Government forces and Moro rebel groups had been instrumental in ending some of the feuds by mediating to forge pacts among those involved.

Rebel Base Captured

Also in Bukidnon, government troops have seized a huge jungle encampment of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) after fierce fighting that left one soldier dead and a dozen others wounded, officials said.

Troops also recovered 120 sticks of dynamites and anti-government propaganda inside the camp in the mountain village of Busdi in Malaybalay City after weeklong clashes that began June 18, a military report said. The rebel base has 164 bunkers used for training.

Lt. Col. Francisco Simbajon of the army’s 4th Infantry Division said the camp was heavily fortified and surrounded by dangerous terrain. He said helicopters were used to flush out the rebels.

Kidnapping

In nearby Lanao del Norte province, unidentified gunmen snatched an election officer who was on his way to pray at a mosque in Iligan City, the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the military said.

Disalungan Pulala, 56, was seized before sunrise by 5 gunmen in the village of Mahayahay on Monday. Pulala was dragged into a van, said Captain Pabilonia.

“We still don’t know the motive of the abduction, but the victim is an officer of the Commission on Election in Lanao de Sur province,” Pabilonia said, adding, security forces were dispatched to track down the hostage.

The MILF, which is currently negotiating peace with Manila, said its forces were also working closely with the military authorities to track down and recover Pulala and Kurt Degracia, an 11-year old boy also kidnapped last week in Parang town in Maguindanao province.

Gunmen kidnapped Degracia Friday inside the Landasan Central Pilot Elementary School in front of his horrified teacher and classmates. His family owns a chain of hardware stores, authorities said.

“We are coordinating and working closely with the Armed Forces of the Philippines to track down the kidnappers and the two hostages,” said Eid Kabalu, the group’s spokesman.

No group or individual claimed responsibility for the latest abduction, but previous kidnappings in the two provinces were politically motivated.

Last month, gunmen seized Pala-o Diamla, a court sheriff in Marawi City in Lanao de Sur province on orders from a politician who lost in the May 2004 elections.

He was freed a week later after MILF fighters, backed by government soldiers, threatened to assault the kidnappers’ hideout in the province.

The military said a defeated candidate for the town’s vice mayorship, who has a pending electoral protest, allegedly masterminded the kidnapping to force the court to rule on his favor. Even judges in the provinces who were hearing election protests were also under threat.

Murder in Jolo

Down south in Jolo Island, gunmen on board motorcycles gunned down a 28-year old man, the military said.

At least 6 gunmen in three motorcycles were involved in the attack that killed Fauzi Araji in downtown Jolo at the weekend, said Captain Pabilonia of the Southern Command.

“The victim was shot with .45-caliber pistol and did not reach the hospital alive. Authorities are investigating this matter,” he said.

Little was known about the man or why he was killed, but the spate of attacks on civilians on the island the past months have been largely blamed to the break down of peace and order and the proliferation of illegal weapons in the hands of the private armies of politicians, rebels and Abu Sayyaf militants.