The diversity and disparities of the archipelago have prompted post independence communist and separatist movements to engage in internal armed conflict since the late 1960s, especially in the predominantly Muslim region of Mindanao. These groups have been responsible for 1700 deaths since 2000 and possibly 200,000 internal displacements each year. There have been alternating phases of government peace talks and all-out military campaigns against them. The secessionist group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), reached a peace agreement in 1996 which awarded control over the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). Renewed fighting in 2007 has led to demands for an extension to the ARMM for which negotiations are under way.
Another Mindanao group keen to establish a Muslim homeland, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), faced a heavy military campaign by government troops under President Estrada. Successive fighting and peace talks have continued under President Arroyo, with Malaysia heading an international monitoring group with a presence on the island. The government claims that its own fighting is targeted solely at the small but extremist organisation of Abu Sayyaf which is believed to have links to Al-Qaeda and the regional extremist group Jemmaah Islamiah. The objective is to stop members of Abu Sayyaf using the island of Jolo as a base for recruiting and training militants. There are inevitable misundertandings over identity and territory between these three groups, often disrupting a peace process. Long term prospects of disarming and reintegrating such long-established fighters are at best uncertain.
The Philippine military has been assisted by US equipment and personnel in combating this group which has continued even though relations with the US cooled following the withdrawal of Philippine troops from Iraq in 2004.
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