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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippine military calls BIFF leader's expulsion 'propaganda' |
| 2014-02-21 |
| The Philippine military on Thursday branded as "damage control propaganda” the reported expulsion from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters of a senior member for leading last year’s beheading of a farmer as they plundered several villages in North Cotabato last year. The spokesman of the outlawed BIFF, Abu Misry Mama, was reported on Wednesday as saying that Imam Ali Tambako had been expelled from the group for the decapitation. Misry had reportedly said that Tambako’s expulsion was proof that the BIFF do not engage in inhumane conduct while fighting for a puritan Islamic state in Southern Mindanao. Col. Dickson Hermoso, spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said the BIFF would have made a better impression if it had turned over Tambako to the police for prosecution. He said that the announcement was an apparent “damage control” effort to make up for negative publicity for the group in its use of “child warriors,” and banditry. Nearly 30 BIFF leaders, including the group’s founder, Ameril Ombra Kato, a Saudi-trained cleric, face criminal charges. They have been charged in connection with a series of attacks on farming communities in Maguindanao and North Cotabato. |
| Posted by:ryuge |