Word: auges
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Only a few weeks ago, the decades-long conflict between the government and separatist fighters seemed to be inching toward a political solution. On Aug. 4, negotiators for the Philippine government and the main insurgent group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), struck an agreement that would have set boundaries for an autonomous Muslim homeland, and, hopefully, dampened the insurgency. Yet, as has happened so often before in Mindanao, the center did not hold. After a challenge by Christian leaders in the minority-Muslim region who objected to the inclusion of some villages in the proposed Muslim area, the Philippines...
Less than a week after the court's decision, MILF insurgents attacked 15 towns on Aug. 11 in Mindanao's North Cotabato province, killing at least nine people. Around 130,000 people were displaced by the North Cotabato violence, according the World Food Program, which is supplying refugees in the area. Fighting soon spread to neighboring areas, driven, says Lingga, by frustration with the political deadlock in peace negotiations...
...Aug. 20 television interview, MILF chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim called on insurgents to end their attacks. But military spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres says the group may have lost control of its more radical military field commanders. "We consider these groups just plain criminals because they have defied the orders of MILF leadership," he says of the rogue insurgents. "We feel it's our responsibility to go after them and bring them to the bar of justice...
...MILF's apparent inability to rein in its local commanders could also seriously undercut any efforts to return to the negotiating table. On Aug. 21, President Arroyo announced that the government would no longer negotiate with armed rebel groups - a major departure from the policy of engagement that led to the Aug. 4 accord with the MILF. "These recent developments in the south have led to a change in the basic premise of our peace efforts," she said during a speech Thursday. "The focus of our talks shall shift from the armed groups to the communities...
...former neighbors who are upset about being forcibly evicted from their homes in 2001. This month, they visited Beijing police five times to apply to hold a demonstration in one of the officially sanctioned protest areas established for the Olympic Games, but instead of being granted that right, on Aug. 17 they were ordered to serve one year of "reeducation-through-labor," says Wu's son Li Xuehui. "I'm extremely angry," he says. "For a common person to be sentenced to this, it's very...