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Time of India
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
When guerrilla groups lay down arms
Representative Image (AI) PARIS: The Kurdistan Workers' Party ( PKK ), which on Monday announced its dissolution and the end of its insurgency against Turkey, is not the first group to end a decades-long armed campaign. Here are some other key cases: ETA The Basque separatist group ETA, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Liberty), waged a four-decade campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque country in southwest France and northeast Spain. It declared and end to its armed operations in October 2011 and announced its dissolution in May 2018. FARC On November 24, 2016 former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos signed a historic peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's biggest rebel group, in a bid to end a leftist insurgency that had lasted more than 50 years. S antos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Some groups across the country rejected the demobilisation process and regrouped in two structures: Segunda Marquetalia and Estado Mayor Central (EMC), FARC's main dissident group. Violence involving another powerful leftist group, the ELN, as well as rightwing paramilitaries and drug cartels has also continued. Moro Islamic Liberation Front A 2014 peace deal between the Philippines government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) ended a decades-long armed campaign for a separate state, and later for Muslim self-rule in the majority-Catholic Asian nation. The deal ended a deadly armed rebellion which broke out in the 1970s in the southern Philippines. But small groups of Islamist fighters opposed to the peace deal continued to operate on the island of Mindanao. Communist rebels also continue to fight in the region. Tamil Tigers The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist group based in Sri Lanka and known as the Tamil Tigers, were crushed in May 2009 in a huge military assault, ending a 37-year civil war. According to rights groups, up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the last weeks of the war, during the army assault that eventually crushed the Tamil Tigers' command. IRA After 35 years of efforts to find peace, the breakthrough Good Friday Agreement of April 10, 1998 ended a sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland known as the "Troubles". In 2005, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) officially gave up its armed campaign. In practice it had laid down its arms in 1997 to take part in the peace talks. It had ordered its members to use peaceful methods to achieve their goal of reunifying the island and ending British sovereignty over Northern Ireland. Its weapons were decommissioned in September 2005. Some paramilitary groups nevertheless remained active, including the New IRA. Unita Angolan forces killed Jonas Savimbi, leader of Unita (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) in February 2002, ending a 27-year civil war. A ceasefire was signed on April 4, 2002 in Luanda. UNITA then became the main opposition party.
South China Morning Post
12-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Philippine midterm elections: violence mars voting in restive Muslim region
Violence marred midterm elections in the southern Philippines on Monday, with observers reporting a surge in killings and voter intimidation in Muslim Mindanao – an area long troubled by armed groups, clan rivalries and former separatist rebels. The vote – which saw 68.6 million Filipinos elect senators, representatives and local officials – was particularly volatile across the Bangsamoro autonomous region, governed largely by former rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), where tensions have been rising in the lead-up to polling day. Among the dead were a candidate for municipal councillor and his brother, gunned down at close range on their way to vote in Bayang town, Lanao del Sur. The victims, 38-year-old Afganie Balt Taha and 35-year-old Walid Balt Taha, were killed by unknown assailants, according to local police chief Captain Edmundo Nabor. At a polling centre located on the border of Buadiposo and Ramain towns in Lanao del Sur, voters scrambled for cover shortly before noon as elite soldiers and police fired warning shots to disperse supporters of two politicians engaged in a heated dispute over alleged cheating. Police and military personnel check voters entering a polling station during national midterm elections in Buadiposo town, Lanao del Sur province, on the southern island of Mindanao on Monday. Photo: AFP Riots were also reported at voting centres in Sagonsongan village of Marawi City, and the nearby town of Saguiaran, after supporters attempted to delay the voting and a poll watcher was found in possession of a master list of voters – a practice prohibited by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Arab News
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Marcos appoints new chief minister in Philippines' only Muslim region
Manila: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed a new interim chief minister to oversee the only Muslim-majority territory in the Philippines, as the region prepares for its first parliamentary elections in October. Bangsamoro was at the heart of a four-decades-long separatist struggle until 2014, when the Philippine government struck a permanent ceasefire agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, paving the way for peace and autonomy in the region home to the biggest Muslim population in the predominantly Catholic country. The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was formed in 2019 as part of the region's transition to autonomy, which will culminate in October this year, when it will elect its legislature and executive. Until then, BARMM's leadership is currently under a transition authority appointed by the Philippine president. Marcos has appointed Abdulraof Macacua, the governor of Maguindanao del Norte — a province within the Bangsamoro region — to replace Murad Ebrahim, who had served as BARMM's chief minister since 2019. The change in leadership was confirmed on Sunday by Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro. 'This transition comes at a crucial time as the Bangsamoro region prepares for a significant milestone — its first parliamentary elections in October this year,' Presidential Peace Adviser Carlito G. Galvez, Jr. said in a statement on Monday. 'For the continuity and success of the Bangsamoro peace agreement, we place our trust in Interim Chief Minister Macacua as he takes the helm of governance.' Macacua's appointment was welcomed by Yshmael 'Mang' I. Sali, the governor of Bangsamoro's Tawi-Tawi province. 'We stand firmly behind the new leadership as we work together toward the goals of the Bangsamoro Government for the benefit of all its constituents,' Sali said. Macacua, 67, has been a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority since 2019. Also known as Sammy Gambar, he was a senior MILF leader and had served as chief of staff of MILF's armed wing. Rikard Jalkebro, an expert on Muslim Mindanao and associate professor at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi, said the 'unexpected' change in BARMM's leadership 'carries significant political, governance and security' implications. 'It signals that (the palace) is not happy (or) confident that things are moving in the right direction,' Jalkebro told Arab News. The last-minute leadership change may create uncertainties for ongoing governance programs, development initiatives and election preparations. 'Ebrahim was leading the BARMM transition with policies aligned with the peace process. Will Macacua continue these policies, or will he introduce new priorities that alter the region's political and economic trajectory?' he said. Though Macacua is also part of MILF, his appointment may also 'indicate internal rifts within the organization,' according to Jalkebro. As such, how the MILF and other Bangsamoro stakeholders react to the latest development in the coming months 'will be critical' in determining 'whether this shift strengthens or destabilizes' the transition process. 'The transition from a rebel movement to a formal political entity is delicate, and any perception of unfair political maneuvers could create tensions, particularly among grassroots MILF supporters,' Jalkebro said. 'The long-term effect will hinge on whether Macacua can maintain stability, ensure a fair election, and uphold BARMM's autonomy without undue national government interference. This moment is a critical test for the future of Bangsamoro self-governance.'
