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| Southeast Asia |
| Another take on the recent Philippines violence |
| 2005-01-12 |
| Six soldiers who defended an Army outpost here from marauding Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels were executed one after the other as they lay helpless and wounded in the military detachment, barangay officials told military investigators yesterday. All the soldiers were shot in the back. Another wounded soldier was shot and killed while fleeing from the burning military outpost in Barangay Linantangan. Two other soldiers, although wounded, were able to seek refuge in nearby houses.Pfcs. Asibon Matli and Alnadzar Atari — two of the soldiers killed — were former guerrillas of the Moro National Liberation Front who had been integrated into the Army. In the presence of members of the Malaysian-led International Monitoring Team (IMT), barangay officials told military probers that the rebels stole the personal belongings, combat boots and firearms of the slain soldiers after setting fire to 36 makeshift bunkers inside the fenced detachment. They later fled to a nearby marsh carrying their dead and wounded comrades, the local officials added. Government troops have retaken one of the Army outposts lost to MILF guerrillas following two days of fighting that left at least six soldiers and an undetermined number of rebels dead. At Malacañang, the government demanded yesterday that the MILF surrender the leaders and men of a renegade faction that attacked two Army outposts in Maguindanao on Sunday. "In our case, I think the (MILF) should turn over to the government the identified perpetrators of about 40 to 60 (MILF) people," Palace communications director Silvestre Afable Jr. said. "So we're asking for some sanctions, at the very least, that they (MILF) yield these perpetrators to the government or to the international ceasefire monitoring team." Afable said the MILF has not classified as "lost command" Abdul Rahman Binago, who led the attacks and had been blamed for truce violations in the past. "And therefore, the (MILF renegade group) is under the protection of the rules and regulations of the ceasefire process," he said. "The MILF disowned them already yesterday, and Mr. Eid Kabalu has said they have nothing to do with the attack, but it was an independent action of this renegade MILF commander." The government will elevate the MILF ceasefire violation to the Malaysian-led 50-man International Monitoring Team deployed in eight provinces in Mindanao since last week, Afable said. In Maguindanao, sources at the Provincial Peace and Order Council told The STAR the attack was led by Ustadz Wahid, a former MILF brigade commander, who was removed from his post and put on "floating status" by MILF chairman Al Haj Murad last December. Officials of the peace and order council had asked Murad to relieve Wahid as he was involved in extortion, kidnapping and other criminal activities, the sources added. The sources said Abdul Rahman Binago, whom the military had tagged as leader of the marauders, had been invited by Wahid to join his band supposedly to avenge the death of his brother, Bides Binago, leader of the Abu Sofia kidnapping gang, who was killed in a clash with troops last week. Wahid wanted to make it appear that the attack was in revenge for the death of Bides, when in fact his aim was to embarrass Murad, sources added. Members of the IMT, led by Malaysian army Maj. Gen. Dato Zulkifeli, started documenting yesterday the atrocity, the worst ever since military officers from Brunei and Malaysia started helping monitor the government-MILF ceasefire late last year. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |