|
Soldiers on Sunday captured the camp of a Moro
National Liberation Front commander in Sulu after his group shelled
a Marine outpost.
The camp of Habier Malik in
Panamao town was captured by troops with no casualties on the
government side, said Maj. Eugene Batara.
The forces of Malik are believed
to have suffered many casualties but the whereabouts of Malik is not
known, Batara said.
“There has been intermittent
clashes and the group of Malik is on the run,” he said, adding
that troops had been deployed to prevent other Muslim armed groups
from coming to Malik’s aid.
The attack on Malik’s camp came
after he and his MNLF followers used mortars to shell a Marine base
near Panamao late Friday, killing two Marines and a civilian and
triggering a firefight.
It was not clear why Malik’s
forces began shelling the Marine camp, Batara said.
In February, Malik kidnapped
government peace negotiators in Jolo but released them later after
securing a pledge from government that the plight of jailed former
MNLF leader Nur Misuari, was being closely looked into.
The MNLF was a former Muslim
separatist group which signed a peace pact with the government in
1996. They dropped their independence bid and opted for limited
self-autonomy, and their leader Nur Misuari was subsequently named
governor of a Muslim region.
Five years after the accord,
however, Misuari launched a fresh rebellion after he lost
government’s support over alleged corruption.
Misuari’s forces attacked
government targets on Jolo and nearby Zamboanga city, killing over
100. He fled to Malaysia, but was later captured and deported and is
now in jail in a police camp in Santa Rosa, Laguna.
He remains an influential figure
in Muslim communities in the south and Malik is a known loyalist of
Misuari. The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) has been
lobbying for his release to attend a meeting in Saudi Arabia in
July.
The 57-nation OIC recognizes the
MNLF as the sole representative of Muslim minorities in the
Philippines.
 --Anthony
Vargas, AFP
and Sam Mediavilla
|
