SUMMARY
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) had engaged in low-intensity one-sided violence against civilians for over ten years when an intensification of targeting civilians for the first time occurred in the year 2000, the same year that the territorial conflict with the Government of Philippines reached the level of war for the first time. It is generally accepted that the increase of civilian targets could be understood against the backdrop of the deteriorating relationship between the government and MILF in the late 1990s.
After countless violations by both government and MILF forces of a July 1997 cease-fire agreement, then-President Estrada declared an all-out war against MILF in March 2000. A few months later, in the wake of the government’s seizure of Camp Abubakar (the group’s main base), MILF's late founder Salamat Hashim called on the Moro people in a July radio broadcast to rise in jihad against "the enemy of Islam". According to analysts, the camp was at the heart of MILF's political, religious, and military power, and the rebel camp areas were generally conceived as a form of embryonic Bangsamoro sovereignty. Following the fall of Camp Abubakar in July 2000, violence in Central and Southern Mindanao increased and the MILF-government peace talks collapsed. As a result, there were direct clashes between government and MILF units, but also indiscriminate violence directed at civilians - Muslim s (Philippines), Christians (Philippines), and Lumad (non-Muslim indigenous people). A similar scenario was replayed in early 2003 when the government army captured the ‘Buliok complex’, the new MILF headquarters, and a series of seemingly retaliatory attacks on civilian ensued by MILF.
MILF has publicly condemned the Philippine, terrorist-labeled Abu Sayyaf Group’s (ASG) attacks against civilians, deeming them un-Islamic. MILF officials have repeatedly emphasized that their political goals – securing self-governance – differ significantly from some of the more extremist aims of ASG or the regional Islamist network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), who have wanted to push Christians (Philippines) out of the region entirely. When accused, MILF often denied any use of violence against civilians, claiming that the different allegations were the government’s attempt to make MILF into scapegoats and that the attacks were actually perpetrated by clandestine government operatives. Chairman Murad Ebrahim did, however, concede in a 2003 interview that it was possible that some MILF members were involved in terror attacks (in cooperation with groups such as ASG and JI), but asserted that the organization as such did not tolerate or sanction “terrorism”.
Murad Ebrahim’s statement is corroborated by reports which have suggested that MILF has had issues with central command, particularly in the Zamboanga peninsula and Lanao provinces. Both the government and MILF's leadership have acknowledged the existence of ‘rogue’ commanders and so-called “lost-commands” who appear to have collaborated with extremist groups (e.g. ASG) known for targeting civilians. Nonetheless, analysts note that it is not entirely clear whether MILF has the capacity to control the actions of these commanders; or if the leadership even has the will to curb the attacks on civilians – some of the attacks, like the post-Buliok ones, appear to have had at least the tacit approval of top MILF leaders.
Moreover, scant contribution of the disorganized Muslim base in Zamboanga and Lanao, in the form of the Islamic practice ‘zakat’ (tithes), has subsequently led some of the MILF divisions to seek alternative sources of revenue through extortion, kidnapping, and pillaging of provincial towns (mostly Christians (Philippines)).
The means of targeting civilians have primarily been through bombings and hit-and-run attacks.
MILF first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2000, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in February that year when a bomb exploded onboard a ferry in Mindanao, which killed 45 civilians.
