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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippine Troops Prepare to Arrest Suspects in Basilan Attack |
| 2007-07-30 |
| Government troops stepped up security patrols yesterday in the southern island of Basilan in preparation for a campaign to arrest rebels behind the July 10 killing of 14 Marines, ten of them beheaded. More than 2,000 soldiers are now on the island as part of task force that will carry out the arrest after a court released the warrants against 130 suspects. The military has given investigators until tomorrow to look into the beheading of the soldiers in Al-Barka town. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is negotiating peace with Manila, admitted attacking the soldiers, but denied beheading them. It also rejected a military demand to turn over those behind the attack. Marine Col. Ramiro Alivio, commander of military forces in Basilan, said “intelligence operations and security patrols” were continuing but that there have been no large-scale movement of forces by either side and no armed contact have been recorded as of yesterday. The news of impending punitive actions against the MILF has triggered an exodus of civilians with more than 5,000 people fleeing their homes in Al-Barka town and nearby areas. The offensive against the MILF was delayed until Tuesday following a warning by Japan and Canada that they would halt their aid programs in the south if the fighting escalated. TV Crew The Department of Justice (DOJ), meanwhile, said it will ask the GMA-7 television crew that took footage of the July 10 clash to testify against those behind the ambush. Regional State Prosecutor Ricardo Cabaron said the DOJ would “appreciate” the help of GMA7 reporter Jun Veneracion and cameramen Donato Roxas and Julius Catibog, who were with the Marine soldiers when ambushed by MILF forces. Cabaron said their personal accounts and possibly the video footage taken during the ambush would give them a clear idea of how the clash happened. “If we cannot get them through the voluntary process, then we will ask the court to issue the orders for the compulsory process,” Cabaron said. A source who had access to the closed-door meeting of the joint government and MILF coordinating committee on the cessation of hostilities (CCCH) told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Veneracion and his team would be asked to “testify to shed light in the incident.” The JCCCH is investigating the beheading of the soldiers.Veneracion earlier told the Inquirer that he would be willing to supply information to authorities if the case against the suspects prospers. Trademark Top military officials have admitted that beheading of captives has become the trademark of bandits in Basilan. There were reports that the beheadings were done by Abu Sayyaf members who have camps near the ambush site. Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo, the Western Mindanao Command chief, said the beheading and mutilation were called pintakasi. “Once you fall or land in the hands of the attackers or enemies, pagtututulungan ka nila (they will gang up on you) doing all unimaginable acts even if you are already dead,” Cedo said. AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr., in a press conference on Friday afternoon, told reporters that beheading was not a new thing in Basilan. “We know about the beheadings even way back in 1970s,” he said. Esperon said that when he was assigned in Basilan as a young lieutenant, “there was no Abu Sayyaf group then, but beheading was one of the practices of people in the area.” Dr. Nilo Barandino, a physician based in Basilan who conducts post-mortem examination, told the Inquirer that there were about 70 soldiers and innocent civilians beheaded in the 1980s. “Majority of those beheaded were soldiers,” Barandino said. Col. Daniel Lucero, a member of Esperon’s staff, recalled that when he was still with the 5th Infantry Battalion, seven soldiers were beheaded and mutilated in barangay Duga-a in Tuburan town on Feb. 14, 1984. In July 2001, two soldiers were beheaded in barangay Sinulatan in Tuburan, Lucero added. Lt. Col. Rudy de Bellen of the Philippine Marines recalled that 21 members of the 1st Marine Battalion suffered mutilation, four of them beheaded, in barangay Candis, Tuburan town on Feb. 9, 2003. “The Marine soldiers came from a feast, and they were poisoned before they were attacked,” De Bellen said. He said the suspects in the attack were led by Dorie Kalahal, a commander of the Moro National Liberation Front. Kalahal is now mayor of Tuburan proper. He availed himself of the government’s amnesty offer. Barandino, who was able to see some of those beheaded and mutilated soldiers in the July 10 ambush, said the mutilation happened between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., not midnight as earlier reported by Basilan Gov. Jum Jainuddin Akbar. Akbar earlier told the Inquirer that when they started retrieving the bodies around 10 p.m. of July 10, the bodies were still intact. Akbar said she was informed by her staff that some of the dead were beheaded during the second retrieval at around midnight. |
| Posted by:Fred |