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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: The Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) hailed the findings of an independent probe on the
killings of eight people by government soldiers in Sulu province.
Muhammad Ameen, chairman of the MILF
Secretariat, said the findings of the Commission on Human Rights
detailed how troops attacked the village of Ipil in Maimbung town
and plundered the houses of villagers, among them an off-duty Army
soldier and seven civilians. The MILF had previously condemned the
killings.
The said raid on February 4, the military
insisted, was a legitimate operation that targeted the Abu Sayyaf,
which is holding a kidnapped trader, Rosalie Lao, in the town. Seven
of those killed by soldiers were two children, two teenagers and a
pregnant woman, including a seaweed farmer and a village councilor.
CHR Regional Director Jose Manuel Mamauag said
there was no Abu Sayyaf in the village and that seven of those slain
in the military attack were innocent civilians. “None of them was
an Abu Sayyaf member. Seven civilians and a government soldier were
killed in that attack,” he said.
The MILF also praised Mamauag for his unbiased
report of the CHR investigations into the killings. ”Conscience-guided
men, like Mamauag, deserved to be commended by everyone, despite
differences of loyalties and orientations,” he said, adding, only
men of conscience and commitment to the rule of law could decide on
the side of truth and justice, especially if the victims were only
lowly seaweed workers.
Mamauag has recommended the filing of criminal
charges against the soldiers involved in the raid. The military
restrained the more than 50 soldiers who took part in the operation
and most of them are members of the so-called elite and US-trained
Army Light Reaction Company and the Navy’s Special Warfare Group.
The military has ordered a separate probe of the
killings after Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan vowed to file criminal charges
against the soldiers. The killings also sparked massive protests
from international and local human rights organizations and civil
society groups.
“We will respect the outcome of the
investigations,” said Army Maj. Gen. Ruben Rafael, commander of
the military forces in Sulu.
Survivors of the carnage testified in
investigations that soldiers opened fire on villagers as they
pleaded for their life. Four of those killed were shot at sea as
they fled for safety on boat.
One of the survivors, Rawina Wahid, wife of the
slain soldier Pfc. Ibnul Wahid, said her husband was hogtied and
tortured by soldiers before being shot at the back of his head.
“My husband told the soldiers that he is a
member of the Philippine Army, but they never listened and dragged
him out of the house, bound his hands behind his back and then shot
him. They did not listen to our pleading and they killed my
husband,” she said.
She said she saw four US soldiers on a Navy boat
where the body of her husband was brought. “I saw four American
soldiers on the boat before Filipino troops blindfolded me,” she
told reporters. Wahid said she boarded the boat that took her
husband’s remains to a military base in Jolo town.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro assured the
governor that there would be no cover up in the ongoing
investigation into the killing of the civilians. He said President
Gloria Arroyo ordered a probe into the incident. “The instructions
of President Arroyo is to have a credible investigation,” he said.
Teodoro met last week with families of those
killed in the raid and heard the testimony of Wahid. Tan branded the
killings as “barbaric and dastardly.”
One of the victims was shot at close range in
the forehead; his right eye was gouged out and the right ear
missing. One had a missing finger while another had burns on his
body and legs.
The slain civilians were identified as Marisa
Payian, 4; Wedme Lahim, 9; Alnalyn Lahim, 15; Sulayman Hakob, 17;
Kirah Lahim, 45; Eldisim Lahim, 43; Narcia Abon, 24. Two of the
raiders were also killed and four others wounded after armed
villagers retaliated.
Reps. Yusop Jikiri of Sulu province and Mujiv
Hataman of Basilan have separately called for a congressional
investigation into the killings in Maimbung .
Jikiri, a former rebel leader of the Moro
National Liberation Front, said the off-duty soldier killed along
with seven civilians was shot in front of his wife, and recounted
the latter’s narration of the incident in a privilege speech.
Hataman also filed a resolution seeking for an
urgent investigation of the killings, which he described as
“despicable, loathsome and ruthless.” He said: “There is no
valid reason, especially for the soldiers who are supposed to be the
protector of the people, to kill innocent civilians, particularly
children.
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