After Philippines Supreme Court rejects bid to create separatist territory, Islamists attack
The Supreme Court on Monday stopped the government from signing a peace agreement with Muslim separatist insurgents in southern Philippines, in another apparent setback to efforts to end nearly four decades of rebellion there.
A temporary restraining order that the High Tribunal handed down was in response to a consolidated petition filed by officials from Mindanao who had opposed giving the country’s Muslim minority of four million their ancestral domain. On such territory, the rebels said, would rise their independent Islamic homeland. The signing of the peace pact between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) had been scheduled for today in Malaysia.
The report indicates that thousands of Christians have been protesting the proposed agreements.
AFP reports: Muslim rebels attack Philippine troops after deal halted.