A soldier is helped by comrades after being injured during
skirmishes with rebels in Zamboanga City on September 9
(CNN) -- As many as 400 armed Muslim rebels
are holding at least 20 people hostage in a southern Philippine
city after coming ashore by boat, authorities said Monday.
Philippine police
and armed forces have blockaded the areas of Zamboanga City, a
mainly Christian city on the southern coast of Mindanao, where
the rebels are holed up, Mayor Isabelle Climaco-Salazar told
CNN. She said the rebels had planned to march on the city hall.
City officials
hope to talk to the rebels, who are believed to be from the Moro
National Liberation Front, to try to negotiate the hostages'
release, she said.
The MNLF, a
separatist movement founded in 1971 by Nur Misuari with the aim
of establishing an autonomous region for Muslims in this mainly
Catholic country, signed a peace deal with the central
government in Manila in 1996 -- though some of its members have
broken away to continue with a violent campaign.
According to a
statement issued by Climaco-Salazar, the current crisis began at
around 4.30 a.m. local time when government forces clashed with
armed rebels heading for the city by boat. Six people, including
a policeman, a navy serviceman and four civilians, were killed
during the course of these clashes.
The statement
added that six districts in this coastal city of 800,000 people
have been affected by the "infiltration of alleged MNLF
members," with 20 hostages taken in the district of Santa
Catalina.
In a televised
press conference Monday, a police spokesman said a further 200
people were currently stranded in the city because of the
blockade by security forces. They are not being classified as
hostages.
No demands have
been made by the rebels, he added.
Under the terms
of the 1996 agreement, Misuari was named as governor of an
expanded Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). He served
until 2001.
Last month
Misuari issued a "declaration of independence" for the Moro
nation -- referring to Mindanao's indigenous Muslim population
-- after complaining that the MNLF had been left out of a recent
wealth-sharing agreement with an another insurgent group, the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has fought for
decades to set up an independent Islamic state on the
resource-rich island of Mindanao.
©
2013 Cable News Network.
Turner
Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved. To subscribe or visit
go to: http://www.cnn.com
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/09/world/asia/philippines-muslim-rebels-unrest