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Southeast Asia
Eid Kabalu’s scared about the Filippino military presence in the south
2004-01-23
Afraid they’re gonna bust all the JI training camps said to be located there?
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Thursday warned a repeat of last year’s hostilities in Buliok complex between the military and Moro rebel forces following the reported massing up of government troops in parts of Central Mindanao to pursue the Abu Sayyaf bandits. MILF spokesman Eid ("Lipless Eddie") Kabalu said that government troops have been deployed this week in several towns in Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat province. “The ongoing deployment of the colonial army belonging to the Armed Forces of the Philippines in said provinces has reminded the Moro [rebels] of the Buliok scenario,” he said in a statement posted at the rebels’ website.

But the military immediately allayed the people’s fears of renewed hostilities between the government and rebel forces. Army Maj. Onting Alon, 6th Infantry Division deputy spokesman, said that soldiers were going after the Abu Sayyaf members seen in the area. “Abu Sayyaf chief Khadaffy Janjalani and some 70 heavily armed followers were sighted in the area on January 16. We have established contact with them on January 20,” Alon said in a radio interview. He claimed that the government troops killed two bandits following the encounter in South Upi, Maguindanao. Nobody was hurt on the government side, he added.
That means the guys in hospital in Sultan Kudarat at Bad Guys. It'll be nice if they're singing tunefully...
Alon said Janjalani and his men, who reportedly came from Malabang town in Lanao del Sur, fled to the coastal town of Lebak in Sultan Kudarat province after the encounter in South Upi. Janjalani and his men were originally reported to have landed in Palimbang town, also in Sarangani province in July 5 last year, but military sources months later said the bandits were able to slip past the dragnets set up by the military there. Alon said the fresh deployment of troops was aimed to neutralize the Abu Sayyaf bandits and was not directed against the MILF rebels in the area.

Citing intelligence reports, Alon said the Abu Sayyaf bandits are planning to resume their kidnapping activities in Central Mindanao from Basilan and Sulu. Owing to this, Alon disclosed that they have intensified their security measures in central Mindanao region in a bid to avert the group’s possible kidnap attempts, with the deployment of soldiers in portions of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat provinces as part of the government’s heightened safety measures. An MILF report said the government troops have been deployed in the towns of Sultan sa Barongis, Ampatuan, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Shariff Aguak and Datu Piang, all in Maguindanao; and Lambayong in Sultan Kudarat province. Kabalu said they fear the deployment of government troops there would eventually end up by repeating the February 2003 Buliok war, although he expressed hope that this would not happen because both sides are observing a cease-fire.
Posted by:Dan Darling

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