| The Philippine government's 35-year confrontation with Muslim separatists on the southern island of Mindanao and a second conflict with communist insurgents across the country have caused 160,000 deaths and displaced up to 2 million people. 120,000 still uprooted by fighting More than 35 percent of population live in poverty Mindanao situation attracts Islamic extremists The Mindanao conflict first flared in the 1960s when the Muslim minority - known as the Moros - launched an armed struggle for their ancestral homeland in the south. But over the years, the Moro campaign for self-rule has become only one of several sources of bloodshed on Mindanao. These include a long Maoist insurgency, violence linked to militant Islamist groups with pan-Asian aspirations, bloody ethnic vendettas, clan wars and banditry. LONG-RUNNING MUSLIM AND COMMUNIST INSURGENCIES While the two largest rebel groups have agreed, or are negotiating, peace deals with the government, the Mindanao region remains a melting pot of breakaway rebel groups, pan-Asian militant Islamist groups and communist rebels rubbing shoulders with mercenary kidnap groups and clan militias. As a result, regular eruptions of violence have forced hundreds of thousands of residents from their homes. Many return fairly quickly, only to be displaced again. In total, the various conflicts in Mindanao have displaced up to 2 million people since 1970. Together, the Moro and communist insurgencies - two of the world's longest-running conflicts - have killed at least 160,000 people. -Reuters 2007 |
| Civil and Religious unrest in Mindanao |




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