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By Al Jacinto Correspondent
SULU: The Department of Justice
on Wednesday sent a team of prosecutors
to investigate the killing of seven civilians and an off-duty
soldier during a military operation in the southern province of Sulu.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez
sent a seven-man team headed by Regional State Prosecutor Jaime Umpa
who met with Gov. Sakur Tan of Sulu to brief the latter about their
task.
“We will investigate the
killings in Maimbung town. There will be a thorough investigation
and we will file criminal charges against those who will be found
guilty,” Umpa told The Manila Times.
The military insists that the
said raid on February 4, was a legitimate operation that targeted
the Abu Sayyaf, the terrorist group holding a trader Rosalie Lao
whom they had kidnapped 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 soldiers were killed in that attack,” he said.
Mamauag’s reports detailed how
troops attacked and plundered the houses of villagers. 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 Tan vowed to file charges
against the soldiers. The killings also sparked massive protests
from international and local human rights organizations and civil
society groups.
“Sec. Gonzales is concerned
about the incident and allegations of a whitewash [in the military
investigation],” he said. “Sec. Gonzales’ marching order to
this panel is to conduct an impartial investigation and to identify
the perpetrators [of the killings],” Umpa said.
The country’s largest Muslim
rebel group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), also praised
Mamauag for his unbiased report into the killings.
Survivors of the carnage
testified in investigations that soldiers opened fired 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 blinded
folded me,” she told reporters. Wahid said she boarded the boat
that took her husband’s remains to a military base in Jolo town.
One of the victims had been shot
at close range in the forehead; his right eye was gorged out and
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 town.
Jikiri, a former rebel leader of
the MILF, said the off-duty soldier killed along with seven
civilians was shot in front of his wife.
“Wahid was reportedly hogtied
first before he was shot in front of her. The wife, in fact, showed
the military uniform of her husband, but the soldiers merely ignored
the plea of Wahid. Later, Wahid was taken by the soldiers to the
rubber boat allegedly driven by an American soldier,” Jikiri said
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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